• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
 
Charles Stippling
How old are you?
"I was Embraced on the fields of battle in 1943. At the time I was 23, looking at finishing my tour in theUnited States Marine Corps and going back to my civilian life as a student of law. That was hundreds of years ago, or years ahead... I never know when it is anymore. All I know is, I need to avoid Germanyand the rest of the great European countries during most of the 1900's."
What was unique about your childhood?
"As a child I was always the rebellious kid. My best friend was a Native American, Eric 'Fireclaw'Graywolf, his father was a medicine man. We played hard, constantly getting injured in our constantstruggles of 'might-makes-right'. Due to the brutality of some of our 'playtime', I ended up sustainingan injury to my eyes that made it necessary for me to wear glasses for the rest of my days. Last time Isaw Fireclaw, he was still apologizing for the eye gouge. Not that it mattered anymore, I had gonethrough the Embrace by then.My parents were there in my formative years, I don't remember them at all, anymore. So long ago havethey passed on to the next realm. I always wanted to be a cop. I had my dogs trained to search out lostpeople, fugitives, small game, whatever my fancy. I have always liked the company of my dogs, muchmore than the insecure children that ran the countryside, beating us fringe people senseless and oftenleaving us for Death to find come morning."
What kind of person were you?
"After leaving home to pursue a career in law enforcement, I was conscripted, or as the wonderfulgovernment puts it, 'drafted', into the USMC. Boot camp changes a man. I went in hard and came outtough-as-nails. I still don't take any shit from anyone. Though, I will always have a soft-spot in my soulfor the ladies. Even the hardest man will melt for the right kind of woman. I'm sure my parents missme. They assume that I died that day in the backwoods outside Berlin. Shot by a sniper or some suchmilitary bullshit. I never got to see them again in their mortal states. The evening my parents died in aplane crash, I was informed by Fireclaw. They made arrangements for an evening funeral. I saw myparents that last time. Quiet, peaceful, happy. I shed a single bloody tear."
What was your first brush with the supernatural?
"I first began to believe in the supernatural while visiting Fireclaw's family. They often told stories of great warriors that danced in the moonlight, howling at the moon, standing as mighty bipedal wolves. Ithought these were fanciful stories at first, but after my first summer with the Medicine Man, I beganhaving dreams. Dreams in which, I was one of those great warriors, and Fireclaw stood at my righthand as we destroyed men that would come and take our people. I spoke to the Medicine Man at lengthabout these images, and he told me that I had been touched by Gaia. Sometime around my 16thbirthday, Fireclaw went off into the wilds with nothing more than his knife and a pair of pants.I envied him.He returned from his Rite-of-Passage dragging a great black bear. The wounds on the bear were notsimple stabs and slashes from a knife. I knew what Fireclaw was at that moment.I hated him.The Medicine Man told me that my Rites-of-Passage would come in time. I wanted to prove that I was agreater warrior. Fireclaw helped me prepare myself for the hunt.I respected him.My call for the Rites never came. Fireclaw insisted that we go off to school and chase our dreams andwomen. To leave the podunks and go to the city. To get drunk on lust and grain alcohol. I smiled.
 
I loved him."
How did the embrace change you?
"During the Second Great War, I was separated from my unit. I wandered the countryside south of Berlin, trying to survive using my wits, recovered ammunition, a knife, and the cover of night. Mytactics and cruelties toward my victims caught the eyes of other stalkers in the night and they decidedto recruit me into their army. I had no choice, really. How can you say no to creatures that can walkthrough trip-lines and anti-personnel mines without setting off a single 'Bouncing Betty'?I was ambushed. Taken from behind and all I heard was the smack of a shovel as my head explodedwith pain. I was shaken to consciousness by one of these foul creatures. He told me that I was going todie unless I fought. I had no idea what it meant. My throat was torn into by the fangs of anothermonster, my lifeblood oozing from the wound as it supped. I stayed on my feet as long as I could, butmy weight finally got the better of me.I collapsed into a deep, roughly dug grave. The creature that had drained my life, slashed its wrist witha long claw that protruded from the end of its index finger. It dripped the blood from the gash onto mylips. I tasted it and desired more, but was too weak to state my desire. The monster before me grinned,baring its bloodstained fangs and mocked my silent pleas. I became enraged and lapped furiously at theblood spilling over my mouth. I began to regain my feet, attempting with all of my being to stand onemore time before my tormentor.Another of the creatures spoke, saying that I was becoming a soldier of the night. A child of darkness. Avampire of the Sabbat. I was told that I was being born into a new family. A family within the undeadknown as the Gangrel. I tried to absorb this flood of information, tried to make sense of what I wasgoing through, to remember what was being said. The shovel spoke to me one more time.I lay in the cold dampness of the Earth. Thinking back to the words of the Medicine Man, that all lifesprang from within Gaia. I clawed my way to the surface. I was hungry. The more I dug, the more mynew hunger grew. My fingers found open air. I erupted from the ground in a fountain of soil. I took myown Marine Corps unit by surprise, and killed every one of them in order to slake my thirst."
Who was your sire, and how did he treat you?
"My recollections of my Sire are only those of my Embrace. I fought to gain all that I have. I eventuallywas able to make my way home to the United States. I stayed near the ancestral homes of Fireclaw andhis kin. They accepted me, begrudgingly, into their fold. I hid from the sun, and hunted with them atnight. Eventually I was sent off to live among my own kind, and Fireclaw brought me into my firstCamarilla city."
Were you presented to the prince?
"I stayed on the fringes of vampirical society just as I had been taught during my childhood of mortalsociety. Eventually, I was brought before the local Prince and was finally explained the Traditions of theCamarilla. I should have been destroyed. But that Prince liked me, and saw in me great potential. Hekept me around as one of his personal interrogators. I enjoyed my job. My Prince took good care of me,until I found my Prince was hunting Fireclaw's family.I liked him.I loved Fireclaw.I'll miss that Prince. [burp]"
How did you meet the others of your coterie?
"I don't recall what exactly brought us all together. I was living in the canyons in East Orange County,California. I received a summons and I think that pretty much sums it up. My best friend in that first
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...