From SuspireWiki

I'm not a man of a whole lot of words, but I'm not a silent motherfucker either. That's the only reason I'm doing this.

I'd been working out pretty hard for some time. Had a scholarship as a wide reciever to UCLA that I was getting ready for. I was out of San Francisco, so it wasn't too far of a trip. I was really looking forward to switching schools and having a real chance for my future. It was ball or work the streets, I decided to try the legit way. Probably should have just balled the streets, I was tall enough, had the dark as night complexion and was a big enough dude to enforce. But I wanted to ball. I could, so why not go for it? Spent way too many nights working out, running back and forth, over tires, around pilons. Training, you know.

First time I got mugged I was running it up with a walkman, you know, the actual CD player, not the tiny MP3 thing they got now. Didn't hear 'em coming, robbery was weird, kind of blacked out after my head hit the concrete wall. I mean, I fought back I'm pretty sure, but it kind of hazes out after that. Woke up with a killer headache afterwards and a little blood on the ground. Figured it was from a bloody lip or something, but no idea. Didn't have no wounds really. Course I know now I got mugged by a vampire, but then I figured it was just some stupid bitch from the projects.

Basically... a week later and I was over it, and back to life as normal.

I'd put a lot of work into getting ready for the new school, but it wasn't to be. I was walking home from gym and I heard someone behind me. I was carrying a piece after the first mugging, so I reached into my bag real slow and pulled it out, then cut across an alleyway. Then, I cocked it, turned and waited. Fucking mangy mutt trotted in and sat down. Thought it was a dog, but if I'd looked harder I'd have seen it was actually a wolf. I think I cussed something at it, trying to shoo it off, then put up the piece and turned to walk out the other way. That's when I thought I heard it following me again, when I turned around to yell at it, there was a white guy staring me down not two inches from my face. I didn't really have a chance to even be startled before he had his fangs into the side of my neck. Embraces happen like that.

Turns out the "white guy" was a fellow named Carson Beyers who was in the market for a new addition to the weird experiment or something. I'm not much of a scientist, even now. I know a little, but it's not my basic interest. Anyway, that's off subject.

He embraced me and wanted me to do all this kind of shit the same damn night almost. I was still reeling from being embraced and being tossed into a fire where I was a vampire, needed to drink to blood to survive, there was rules and regulations, money apparently wasn't important, and oh yeah, did I mention I was a vampire?

I came around to it after awhile. The money thing was whatever, I found out that it wasn't an issue. You could take the money off the people you hunted, and you'd be fine. Or, you could do the easy way and do some bitch work for someone (there's always someone looking for something) and get money that way. That's how I met the Carthians. To say that the Kindred world is real light in complexion is maybe an understatement. Seemed like the Carthians had a bit more diversity, which probably was what first lured me in. I don't want to say that was my first reason, but I'm pretty sure looking back on it that it was.

I'd been alright in school, though obviously athletics was my forte, so I was pretty vaguely aware of activism and the like, but nothing like the Carthians were talking. Some of the debates made my head hurt. Hell, they still do sometimes. It was hard to understand the concept of disagreements being alright even if they were nasty disagreements (and they were sometimes). Probably lasted until after I was released even to join the covenant.

I never really cut ties with the Ordo Dracul though. I realized early on it was a lot less of what you knew and a lot more of who you knew. I wasn't very good at the intellectual side of things, but I looked scary as fuck. Beyers didn't look that scary, and other folks didn't either, so I got tapped a lot to interject before the Axe was called in. You know, the warning before the threat kind of thing. It paid the bills and I learned from doing it. They taught a lot of things to people who are patient enough and assertive enough to ask. I wasn't at first, of course, but the longer you sit at bitch level, the more likely you are to finally cut loose and just get it.

So that's how I wound up with both ties to the Carthian Movement and the Ordo Dracul. There wasn't really anything than that. The Carthians fulfilled my need to actually deal with other people, and my ties with my sire and the Ordo Dracul fulfilled my needs to feel like I have something to advance towards. I'll probably never be like the Mekhet who permeate the order, or the Daeva who permeate the Carthians, but I'm pretty comfortable with my own skin. If I weren't, I don't even know where I'd be now.

And what is now? Well, I'm recording this for you so you know where I'm at before I get into my car and head across the way to Vegas. I got to go there once when I turned twenty-one, and I've been interested in going to see how it looks now. Pictures only do so much, you know. I'm hoping when I get there that I can integrate myself with the two covenants and their membership there too. I heard there's a black guy serving the Overloard as Prince who's pretty educated, and pretty open to newcomers. If that's the case it shouldn't be much of a problem to fit in at all. It's not like I need a lot of upkeep anyway.

I like to think I'm a no-nonsense but not-problematic person. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing as a Kindred yet, but I know that I'm looking to advance myself. I figure that's good enough for now until I figure out what I want, and where I want to go. Since I have clearance to skip out on the Caucus coming up, I'm making the trip now. Or well, as soon as I'm done here. Luckily it's not too far of a drive to head at alone.

Sometimes, all you got is yourself anyway.

Stuff