Nightmares, Curses, and Consequences... Oh My!

This is fan created fiction about a character in a Vampire: The Masquerade live action role playing game run by Mind's Eye Society. If you are a fellow player, please remember that anything you read here is considered out of character knowledge. If you are a lawyer, please don't sue me; I'm not making any money off of this and it's just for fun.

Nightmares, Curses, and Consequences... Oh My!
by Simon W

October 31, 2019 - Sundown

The blood was everywhere. On her hands from the countless times she'd murdered. In her eyes from the tears she'd cried from anger, frustration, and sorrow. And in her heart from the sheer uncountable number of times it had been broken. Love lost... dreams dashed... every negative human emotion centered on her. She adsorbed it into her very soul every night and then dreamed about it the following days.

It was exhausting. It was the combined negative energy of the eleventh most populated city in the United States and surrounding metro area. Nearly three and a half million people... nearly three and a half million private hells and they were all on her shoulders. Frankly, Marianne was starting to think that fighting against literal demons from hell was probably easier.

She wanted to stop. It was torture. But then she remembered the rain, the despair, the miasma that had overtaken the city when the other way had been tried. She sighed. This way was better. Which really just goes to prove that, as fascinating as they were, Donzella was absolutely correct about Mages being dangerous.

The nightmares each day were overtaken by memories each night. She saw the Infernal cultists fall before her in the church as they tried to stop the cleansing of a holy object. She remembered killing them and no matter how much she wanted to do otherwise she couldn't convince herself that it hadn't been a terrible and dire necessity. And hazy, half formed memories were surfacing... of being underground, of thaumaturgical rituals, and ancient hungry vampires.

***

The ritual was clearly thaumaturgy but it was old, so impossibly old. And the Kindred in the center of the warding circle was most certainly not a Tremere.

"My name is Umushtart - and I have been the guardian of this place for a very long time; since the day Tiberius expelled the Egyptians from Rome, and the twilight of the Xin Dynasty began to dim."

Before Marianne could ask any questions of this mysterious Kindred, there was an inhuman roar. It was impossible to tell if it were of fear, anger, or triumph. Umushtart spoke again, “You have come here seeking answers. And you shall have them - but you must help me stop them."

Marianne looked at Veda and Mrs. Sterling. "Who are they?" she mouthed at them. Umushtart answered: “The First Named. Childe of The Unnamed…”

The three Kindred who came at them were older and more powerful than anything Marianne had ever fought against. She had already been hurt more than once on the way down from disabling the thaumaturgical wards. She wished that the others were with them, but they'd gone down a side passage. Veda and Mrs. Sterling, both far more capable combatants than herself, drew their attention while Marianne helped where she could. Umushtart showed her abilities as a combat thaumaturge as well.

It was a brutal slog of a fight. Working together they managed to destroy first one, then another, of the ancient Baali until only The First Named remained. Even then, four on one, it was a struggle to not succumb to his fury. As there was a shake and a rumble of something happening down in the side passage that no one could see, he finally came to the end of his resources and the blow landed upon him that would kill him. Before he turned to ash he spit out words that were so full of venom they needed no translation. That was a curse and Marianne braced for impact.

The impact didn't come. Umushtart spoke, "Today...you have...ended a great and terrible evil. Your friends...below" she says, motioning down with her head as the other group arrives, carrying their wounded as well. "Did as much as you did. This place...and its contents...are yours now. The world...and my masters...will be..."

Whatever she meant to say no one ever heard as her veins turned black and she, herself, turned to ash.

***

The trip home was quiet and then, as though by magic, the memories had lay quiescent for months. Marianne suspected that what had been hidden in her psyche was probably the impetus behind her making the decision to learn to fight better; and her increasing desire to learn more and more about the infernal and demonic specifically so that she could destroy it. While the events of the last several months could be seen as impetus themselves, there had been an unexplained urgency to it all. An underlying motive which now was becoming clearer.

November 1, 2019 - Sundown

Marianne woke up from another day of nightmares. She suspected it was the Mage's working that had unlocked the memories she had lost over the summer. She sighed, and went to stand up. Instead of her effortlessly graceful movements though, she was slow, jerky, and the room looked... off.

She carefully made her way to the bathroom to wash up and prepare herself mentally for the night ahead. They all seemed so fraught lately. It was frustratingly more difficult than it seemed like it should be, as though her sense of balance were off somehow. She got to the bathroom, flipped the light switch and caught a look at herself in the mirror.

A stranger looked back at her. A stranger who had no left eye. As she stared in horror at her reflection the weight of everything that had happened in Italy the previous summer suddenly landed on her shoulders. The curse of The First Named had finally landed and nothing in the rest of her life was ever going to be the same...

Aftermath of Grief

This is fan created fiction about a character in a Vampire: The Masquerade live action role playing game run by Mind's Eye Society. If you are a fellow player, please remember that anything you read here is considered out of character knowledge. If you are a lawyer, please don't sue me; I'm not making any money off of this and it's just for fun.

Aftermath of Grief
by Simon W 


Marianne unlocked her door and quietly entered her house. It had been a long night, or at least she assumed it had been. The last memory she had was when she had arrived at the other house. It was nearly dawn now. Soon she'd slip into another kind of oblivion; that of death-like sleep.

She suspected the memory loss was a side effect rather than the goal. Although, maybe it was a kindness on his part. God knew she appreciated the missing hours right now. She didn't know what, if anything, she thought about during the hours she couldn't remember but she could imagine.

Juanito and William's deaths upset her in the way that deaths always do. But she could at least feel content that they felt like they'd done what they were born to do. She didn't like it and she wished to God she could have prevented it. But one some level she knew that if they hadn't died fighting this demon they'd have thrown themselves at another one. She recognized herself in them that way. Elika's words spoken in grief barely touched her; not because Marianne felt the other woman was wrong, far from it in fact; but because she recognized both Elika's emotions and the kernel of truth in what she said. She had rushed in. She hadn't done it as heedlessly as Elika assumed; it had been part of the plan. Marianne had the magic sword and her job had been to distract and draw focus so that the other three could attack the demon. They were all much better fighters than she was.

Make that, rather, they had all been much better fighters than she was. Now they were dead, killed by the demon. She owed them her life, as they had taken the blows meant for her. Yes, they had killed the demon in the fight but it felt like a very hollow victory.

Spyder, on the other hand, never should have been there. He had never cared about demons and infernal stuff before. It hadn't been his passion or his cause in life to combat them. He'd been there because the people he'd sought refuge from were demon hunters. He should have been off partying with Lorena or trolling the Cammies with Julien. She had to accept that he'd been there primarily as some attempt to win back her affection and that gutted her. The last words he'd said to her before he'd died were that he loved her and she couldn't even wrap her brain around the fact that she didn't believe him. No one who had acted as selfishly and callously as he had could possibly understand what love was. But then, maybe that's what he'd thought love was? She'd never know now.

Marianne wandered through her house, full of books and artifacts. Memory loss was probably not the healthiest way to approach grief and guilt. But she'd be lying if she didn't admit that it was weirdly making things a little easier. For now at least... there'd be hell to pay later but she'd worry about that when it happened.

Revelations and Declarations

This is fan created fiction about a character in a Werewolf: the Apocalypse live action role playing game run by Mind's Eye Society. If you are a fellow player, please remember that anything you read here is considered out of character knowledge. If you are a lawyer, please don't sue me; I'm not making any money off of this and it's just for fun.

Revelations and Declarations
by Simon W

Autumn was coming to the mountains. The mornings were cool, the air was clear, thus far no fires had threatened. Inge was harvesting the vegetables from her garden and putting up supplies for the winter. It was an artifact of an earlier time but with the chaos that Pentex had managed to wreck with their plague, it seemed even more important than usual to Inge to depend less on the conveniences of modern society and more on the simpler pace of living in harmony with Gaia.

Things had been quiet lately. Some troubling rumors from Texas had her concerned. But with no tales sung and no public judgement from those tasked by Luna to do so, Inge was starting to think that they were simply rumors.  They had to be. Surely no Gaian would be as unflinchingly foolish as the rumors whispered.

The little Fog spirit that followed Inge everywhere she went manifested in front of her. She was surprised because normally it was far more subtle about getting her attention. "What do you...?" she began to ask but it stopped her.

"Just listen," it whispered.

As one, all of the spirits of the sept began keening and wailing in unison. Their grief and their anger were overwhelming. For a while it was incomprehensible and Inge could do nothing but bear witness to the spirits. She stood, arms held awkwardly around her pregnant belly, and listened as she'd been asked.

Finally, recognizable words and phrases made their way through the cacophony.

"Dead"
"She's dead"
"Murdered"
"Retaliation for our murder"
"We warned you; you did not listen"
"Murdered"
"Dead"

"Unicorn is dead. Murdered while She slept, vulnerable and unarmed. Who is next? How far does this go? Killing of the Incarnae has begun."

Inge began to shake; with grief, with rage; she practically vibrated in sympathy with the spirits. There was a reason those rumors had been so troubling. There was a reason Gaians didn't simply destroy Wyrm incarna, even if it seemed like a prime opportunity. There were RULES!

She finally was able to motivate herself to action when the Elder Child of Gaia theurge came raging and screaming to the sept. There were things that needed doing, people to be contacted, psychological triage to be seen to. She pulled out her phone and started frantically texting.

As she made her way to the central area of the sept she was already compiling lists in her head. Tea for the Elder, check on her sister, check on her friends, find out what Fog required...

Out of the corner of her eye she saw new spirits arriving. They came with determination in their eyes. Their black horns gleamed in the Autumn light.

Black Unicorn was awake. He was angry. And he wanted vengeance.