Path of the Vampire forum

Title: Wailing Blackout
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Characters: Charles Crafter, Aurelia

Charles Crafter must post first, outlining a story on the following theme (feel free to get creative):

Setting: A well lit part of the quarentine zone
Backstory: The group ended up crossing paths as a result of some criminal undertaking (some or all characters).
Occurance: the power in the surrounding area goes down.
Variable: The sun is about to rise.

Participants: 2
ARES: no
Speed: medium
Chapter: no
Minimum Words Per Post: none
Maximum Words Per Post: none

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This thread was generated via the Roleplay Matchmaking System.

Charles laughed as he leapt high into the air, finger gunning behind him while keeping his head away from view of the guard who just rushed out the commercial building searching for who just knocked everyone else in the building unconscious. Today had been a good day, he'd just taken every bit of worthwhile loot from three buildings in a row before deciding he'd had enough and leaving while apparently the last guard caught sight of the unconscious guards he left behind and ran outside to investigate. Now he was already in the quarantine zone and out of site of the person on the outside, now leaning against one of the lampposts that was unusual bright around here. It was just maybe fifteen to twenty minutes to sunrise about now, he'd made sure to get a good head start on his thievery. It was who he was, a conman and a thief. Though he'd done much less of either recently, having three businesses did that sort of thing, he had other places to apply his skills now.


Suddenly it went dark, "Wow, really?" he said aloud shaking his head but chuckling to himself. Power outage. Not just his light, all of them nearby seemed to have lost electricity. Wasn't too much of a bother, sun would be up soon, maybe he'd just watch the night sky get lighter if nothing else happened sometime soon. Never know what could happen in Harper rock, it was a strange place.

She was cutting it a bit close.

Aurelia could almost feel the way that the sun crept closer towards the horizon as she moved through the Quarantine Zone. As a human, she'd avoided it. The frequency in which the spirits appeared was always double compared to the rest of the city and it had always unnerved her to think what caused it. Now, it still bothered her, but she was getting better at tuning them out as she focused on the other sounds and sights around her. She had noticed, though, some differences in which she could see them - like her senses that had enhanced, it seemed her medium abilities had as well. Spirits were crisper, almost cleaner to her eye.

And they seemed more and more to be aware of her.

Aurelia had just been rounding the corner of one of the deteriorating buildings when the power cut around her. A sigh escaped past her lips, the sound of a few soldiers not too far away beginning to shout out to each other. It took them a few moments, but then, "It's a blackout!" had her frowning. Her hand went to where she'd been keeping her tome, a soft curse falling as she realized it was missing. "Well, that's going to be wonderful in about five minutes." She frowned as she began to pat herself down. Where did she put it?

Charles shook his head looking up at the last bit of red the lightbulb wire had before it was gone and his eyes more fully adjusted to the dark. He had figured it would be of little importance anyway, until he heard a voice, commenting sarcastically about something being great in five minutes. He grinned looking towards the figure that was mostly covered in shadow from here and pushed off the lamppost waving towards her.

Might be a more intimidating thing, but in a place like this, everything could be intimidating, "Heya! Don't suppose you have a flashlight or something?" he asked aloud walking closer. He had a phone actually, but he kind of liked meeting people and in the dark was a fun way to do that, plus, it made it easier to get new people to actually talk to you when you were asking something of them that made them think. Usually made them think they knew what your goal was and then you could choose from there on what you would look like in their eyes. Well, it didn't work every time, but it worked a lot or helped anyway.

Her tome wasn't in the front of her jeans, nor were they in the back pockets where she would normally place it. Her phone, however, was still there - so at least there was that. She had just started to walk away when she heard someone calling out to her. A man. At first, she couldn't make him out, but as he drew closer, Aurelia was able to see that he didn't look too much older than she was. Her ears picked up the heartbeat, but she wasn't biased against humans. If anything, she preferred for them to work together.

"Only my phone and a lighter, I'm afraid. I'd rather use the latter for emergency" She said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the device. Her thumb tapped against the screen; it activated the application, prompting Aurelia to turn it sideways. "It won't be for long given my battery is low." Her enjoyment of Candy Crush was real. "I think it's a power outage." Unfortunately, as the word outage left her lips, there was a seemingly loud crash coming from one of the buildings towards the sewer entrance. "With this city, there's no telling what that could have been."

Charles clicked his tongue and looked around in thought as she answered his question about the flashlight and mentioned low battery and that it was a power outage. "Yeah-" suddenly there was a crash, his glance was redirected to where it appeared to be coming from, not that he could really see that much. He frowned looking back at the woman as she spoke again.

"Heh, no kidding right? He shook his head narrowing his eyes and looking around again, especially towards the east for the sun, before reaching out his hand, "Oh, sorry, Charles Crafter. I uh, guess the sun will be up soon anyway won't it? he mentioned turning sideways so he was angled partly towards the east.

"Don't really pay attention to it much, usually too busy too notice."

"Aurelia von der Marck." She replied to the introduction, but continued to look in the direction that the noise had come from. Was it outside in the sun, or was it in the building? She furrowed her brow as she considered it. Her frown was evident enough as she tried to listen to and figure out the sound of the noise.
Nothing.

After a moment, her blue eyes returned to the man standing near her.

"It should be up soon, yes. I believe, however, I'm going to make my way that way." She motioned towards the area where the crash had come past. It had come in the direction where she'd lost her tome. Aurelia still couldn't believe she'd lost the damn thing, but she knew she'd find it, eventually.

Charles nodded as she introduced herself in turn, "Pleasure to meet you." he commented before following her gaze back at the direction of the noise. There were always noises going on around here, especially thanks to the zombies and all the soldiers, hunters, and vampires running around. Following the noise was a little different unless one was board. He rather wanted to know why.

"Mind if I come along? I'm curious." He asked. On the one hand that might seem a bit concerning to hear someone say, but just how many people around here didn't have abilities of their own anyway. On the other hand, she might think he was a vampire, or a hunter, depending on which side she was on and which she feared. But, then again, anything happened in this city. Some people just got used to it. Normal behavior just couldn't be as easily applied.

Her icy eyes went back to the man before she gave a nod of her head. It wouldn’t hurt for company, Aurelia’s hearing once again returning to the steady beat of his heart. “If you happen to see a tome on the ground, let me know.” She said, heading in the direction to where she heard the noise. Once she was back to where some shade would help avoid a significant burn if she were to be caught outside, Aurelia would only relax. “What do you do for a living, Mr. Crafter?”

Aurelia’s inquiry was one of small talk, but she was curious. There was always the need for allies when it came to her line of work, especially on hot topics such as rights. She had her desire to work on vampire rights, and there was a time in place to discuss it. For now, she was comfortable trying to make a friend, if she could. Still, Aurelia could feel the weight of her weapon on her person and she shown her device on the ground, brief so that she wouldn’t step over any rubble. The last thing she needed was a twisted ankle for not paying attention.

Charles raised his eyebrows at the mention of the tome as they walked, "Will do!" he hadn't really done much with tomes, recently anyway, he had a little interest in things like that at random points in the past few months. But he knew well enough what they were. His gaze drifted across the ground as they walked.

Then there was a question he would have had a little more trouble answering just a few months ago. Well, no he wouldn't, he'd have just lied. Conman and thief before. That simple. But now he had a more solid form of income, "Hm? Oh I'm a businessman, not anything all that large compared to others. Wonder Works, Draco Stocks, and Salamander. Started...hmmm sometime last year. Wonder works has done the best so far. Though it is a bit more direct profits then the other two."

Of course, while Charles was perfectly fine talking about himself, that was rude, and he was also curious about others, "How about you? What do you do to make your way?"