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Post by Pearly Gates on Aug 17, 2009 9:10:02 GMT -8
Birth Name: Peter Gates
Nickname: Pearly
Date of Birth: 20th August 1991
Place of Birth: Toulouse but now living in Florida
Family: Both parents are alive. Anika, his mother is of Dutch heritage and his father, Jonathon, is an American. Peter is an only child after the death of his younger sister at the age of nine from complications caused by her Cerebral Palsy.
Hobbies: Swimming, Athletics, Chess, Mountain Biking
Education: Currently studying Philosophy and English
Appearance: Tall with good muscle tone due to his love of athletics. Blond hair and blue eyed with a healthy tan.
Likes: Healthy living Sport The Outdoors Peppermint Tea Camping Conversation
Dislikes: Having to defend his actions Feeling bored Unenthusiastic people
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Post by Pearly Gates on Aug 17, 2009 9:19:10 GMT -8
A new game Pearly smiled to himself, his large blue eyes fixed on the lap top screen in front of him. Nimble fingers typed out a reply to the question that had been put to him, nothing serious, just small talk. It was never anything serious when Pearly chatted online. He wasn’t one to divulge his deepest darkest secrets to complete strangers nor did he wish to meet up for casual hurried sex. If it ever looked like things were heading that way then Pearly had no qualms with changing the subject or simply going off line, the only annoyance with the last option being that he lost his game. And that game was chess. He had been taught to play by his grandfather when the man was still alive and found the game to be both relaxing and challenging. Not that the youth was particularly good at the game, not to competition standards anyway but he could hold his own and had won more then he’d lost. Since moving away from home to study, he’d found less and less people his own age who played or even knew how to play so he’d turned to the internet and found a few sites that offered free interactive games. This one site had proven to be the most active and it was here, not quite a month ago, that Pearly had met his current opponent. Now, this guy could play. He’d taught Pearly some new tricks and the conversation he made as they played was neither sinister nor patronising. The youth actually enjoyed chatting to him, looked forward to it in fact. It helped that this guy was also a night owl, sleeping the day away. He worked, something to do with Human Resources, the youth wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that and hadn’t wanted to pry, but it sounded far less seedy then Pearly’s job at a night club in town. Not that the boy had chosen to wait tables for a career, he simply had to do something in between terms and he had to pay his bills. Most of his friends went home for the holidays but Pearly’s parents travelled a lot and were currently in Austria.. or was it Australia? He had forgotten which, as he was not as close to his family as he had been when his grandfather was alive. It was not an intention void that had formed between child and parents, just one of those things. There were no harsh words, no violence, no ultimatum, they just grew apart as Pearly aged and now they sent greetings cards and the odd email, but that was all. Pearly glanced at the clock on his dvd player. He wasn’t working tonight but had been unable to change his sleeping pattern. It was a little after 2am and the tv was showing an old horror movie. A zombie shuffled across the screen, probably in pursuit of a hysterical woman, and Pearly snorted softly. He was not one to watch such movies, not out of fear, more that he tended to over analyse the plot and pick holes in it until all enjoyment was gone. It was probably a flaw in his nature but the youth didn’t care. He looked back at the screen to see a message that surprised him pop up in the conversation bubble. “Do you want to meet up to play for real?” Sitting opposite the friendly looking man, Pearly couldn’t help but mentally chide himself. All the way to the park he’d worried and had reached the stage where he was imagining the headlines when his body was found, when he’d laid eyes on his opponent and immediately relaxed. He was no taller then Pearly and only slightly older with a smiling face and warm eyes behind the lenses of his glasses. He looked bookish and more scared of being out at night then Pearly was. They’d shaken hands before dropping into easy chatter like old friends and then they had played chess on the rather old set his companion had brought with him, pieces carved of blackest ebony and oddly white bone. The game and conversation had taken them through the night until the air began to warm as dawn approached. They had barely noticed and were it not for the beep of Pearly’s watch alarm, perhaps they’d have kept playing until the sun rose. As it was, the youth was surprised to find his companion panic, hurriedly packing away his chess set and searching his pockets for something. Pearly was unsure if he was saying scroll or skull, hoping it was the former as he offered to flag down a taxi if the man had to be somewhere quickly. The man looked terrified, all colour drained from his face as he beseeched Pearly to get him into a dark room, a place he wouldn’t be disturbed. That human condition known as compassion took over from the boy’s common sense, and he took the man back to his own small apartment. Of course he asked the man what it was that had him so desperate to get out of the sun. ”I can tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” The apartment looked bigger from the floor. A strange thought to have, the boy mused to himself, but none the less it had popped into his mind. His eyelids felt heavy and he could feel his heart beating in his chest, each thud slower then the last against the wooden floorboards. His left foot twitched, probably due to the tug on his upper body as the man kneeling over him took a better hold. He could no longer feel the sharp pain in his right shoulder but he knew that the man’s teeth were still buried in his flesh and that his blood was ebbing away. He knew he was dying. He didn’t understand why he wasn’t frightened or why he had yet to see that fabled tunnel of bright light. All he could see was the underside of his coffee table and the dust bunnies beneath his couch. It bothered him a little that when the police came and found his body, they’d also notice the dirt under the couch. He wished he had the strength to get up and get the vacuum out. Pearly let his eyes flutter shut, aware that something hot and wet was running down his cheek, dripping into his partially open mouth. He was too weak to gag or to swallow so he let the metallic tasting fluid flow down his throat. He didn’t care if it was poison or a bodily fluid, he was dying and that was his last thought as he lost consciousness. ”Are you awake yet?” Pearly heard a voice he didn’t recognise, one that dragged him back from blissful oblivion to the present. He opened his eyes, hating that they felt sticky and hot. This wasn’t his room, nor was it any kind of hospital that he’d seen before. It just looked like an ordinary bedroom in an ordinary house. He sat up, every muscle tight from lack of use and looked down at himself. He was clean and dressed with no sign of injury. One hand moved to his right shoulder but there were no bandages. He frowned softly, full of sleepiness and confusion before swinging both legs over the side of the bed and standing, albeit a little shakily. Pearly walked to the door and tried the handle. It wasn’t locked, a fact that surprised the youth, so he opened it and moved into the hallway. He followed the light sound of piano music down the hall and to a flight of stairs that he stumbled down. His head seemed to swell with the sound of the music and with the quieter murmur of distant voices. He shook his head to clear it, realising then that his mouth felt disgustingly dry and his tongue seemed too big. He attempted to swallow but his throat was sore and too dry so all that happened was that his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Pearly followed the sound of music into a spacious living room. His eyes first settled upon a low table that bore a very familiar looking chess set. He frowned at it for a moment before looking up at the figure seated at the piano. An equally familiar smile greeted him. ”Care to resume our game?”
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Post by Pearly Gates on Aug 24, 2009 7:30:42 GMT -8
It made no sense to the youth, none at all. He couldn’t be a vampire because they didn’t exist, did they? Of course he’d seen movies with vampires in, some that portrayed them as pale, sickly looking creatures, other’s that showed them as looking quite healthy and humanoid but they all had the same characteristics. They attacked humans and fed on their blood. They skulked around at night, hunting or luring unsuspecting people to their doom and they lived forever.. or until a vampire hunter stabbed them through the heart or the Sun got them. Would he now have to be wary of strange men in leather coats? The boy frowned. Why did vampire hunters always wear leather trench coats? To hide their weapons, or to avoid blood splatter? Or maybe it was fashionable. Pearly chuckled then mentally told himself to grow up. He yawned widely and looked toward the door of his room.
This was his room, the man who had taken him from his small apartment, who had both ended and restarted his life, had told him that he had a room here as long as he wished. He had even fetched some of the youth’s belongings for him and they remained where they had been left, in a pile at the foot of the bed. Pearly had yet to tidy them away because he had yet to admit to himself that this was it. This was what he was now and where he had to remain. He just could not get his head around the fact that he was no longer human. It wasn’t something he’d ever expected to have to do. Like most people he’d sometimes had a ‘What if..’ session where he’d imagined the worst situation he could be in and how he’d get through it. What if I was shot? What if I lost all my money? What if my parents died? The youth visibly shuddered. How would he tell his parents about this? Should he even do so because he knew full well they’d never believe him. He sighed and threw himself back onto his bed, his blond hair framing his head like a halo as it hit the pillow. This was utterly beyond comprehension.
After a few moments of silent contemplation, Pearly’s stomach growled. He placed his left hand over the slight concave of his abdomen and pressed hard. He hadn’t eaten since the previous evening, unless he counted what he now knew was vampire blood. Pearly grimaced. He couldn’t deal with the idea of drinking someone or something’s blood no matter what he’d been told. What if he was being tricked? For all he knew there was a camera on him and people sitting at home were laughing at their tv screens as he agonised over what he was. How embarrassing would it be if he went along with this only to find it was all an elaborate ruse? Pearly rolled onto his side and curled up a little. There were just too many questions. The man who had done this to him.. what did he call himself? Oh yes, his sire, had gone out so Pearly was alone with his thoughts. His thoughts and the painful, gnawing sensation of being hungry.
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Post by Pearly Gates on Aug 25, 2009 5:32:19 GMT -8
Large blue eyes watched from the darkness of an alleyway as a middle aged policeman made his way along the street. He paused every now and then to check the tax discs on the stationary vehicles parked up on his side of the street. Not that it was the cop’s duty to issue fines for out of date tax but he had little else to do. For such a large city, the crime rate was very low. Sure they had a few reported muggings and disappearances but not much else. Most crimes such as murder were dealt with by a different faction of the police force and seemingly dealt with rapidly. The cop wiped a drop of water from the tip of his nose before sniffing. He’d wanted in on that homicide racket but hadn’t met the criteria, whatever that was. That angered him, added fuel to an already burning fire of paranoia and rage in the heart of the man. Nothing was fair in this city, not in his eyes. Gangs roamed the streets but because they weren’t vandals, the police turned a blind eye. His girlfriend of six years had upped and vanished a couple of months ago only to be seen in one of the seedier night-clubs just last week, hanging off the arm of a handsome, pale man. Why did the scum of this city get everything whilst he had nothing? Another droplet of water hit his cheek and the cop cursed silently. This was all he needed. He hunched his shoulders as the rain began to fall faster and headed toward the relative shelter of a nearby alleyway.
Pearly shrank back as the man he had been watching walked toward him. His sire hadn’t warned him about this. He’d explained what the youth now was, gone through what he needed to do to survive and shown him how to hunt. It had been like a bizarre work experience day, a step by step guide to committing murder. Of course Pearly had freaked out and at one point stormed off to sit on the porch, head in hands as his sire tried to comfort the boy. He’d never been too fond of the sight of blood and now he was being told that not only would he be seeing it, he’d be drinking it too. It was a revolting prospect but one that vanished from the youth’s mind as he was confronted by the dark blue uniform of a rain soaked policeman.
Neither human nor vampire spoke as the regarded each other in that dirty, urine soaked alleyway. Did either know the other’s intention? It was impossible to tell but the cop moved first. He took all the anger of his perceived injustices and threw them into a punch that connected with the pale face of the boy in front of him. He couldn’t punish his bosses for denying him a promotion, couldn’t punish his ex for leaving him and he certainly couldn’t take on the entire city but this one, sickly looking youth.. well him he could punish.
Pearly’s head turned to one side as the closed fist connected with his jaw. A blinding flash of pain exploded in his mouth, both fangs biting through his tongue. His sire definitely had not told him that this could happen and for a moment, shock paralysed the youth. But not for long. Another punch caught his shoulder, knocking his back against the wall and giving him leverage to push forward, to launch himself at the cop. What followed next was like a macabre dance, carried out in near silence. The cop rained punches and kicks down on the boy who gave as good as he got despite looking weaker and smaller. Although seeming to last hours, the fight was actually over in just seconds after Pearly picked up a metal trash can lid and smacked the cop over the head with it creating the perfect comedy sound. The cop sunk to the floor, eyes fluttering and his head pumping hot blood from a jagged wound. The boy dropped the lid and took a nervous step back. He stared at the unconscious male before moving closer, lips parted, the tip of his tongue just visible.
Not long after, a lone figure stole out of the alleyway and dashed across the road. He half stumbled as he ran, staggering against a shop doorway to be violently sick before hurrying on. The rain was easing up a little, turning the blood on the face and clothes of the youth a watery pink. He stopped again beneath a street light to wipe at his mouth with the back of one hand, gagging silently. He wanted to go home.. no, not home, back to the house of his sire. He felt frightened and sick and more cold then he’d ever felt. Every time he closed eyes he could see the bloody body of the policeman, laying amongst the trash bags in that alleyway. Pearly doubted he’d ever forget it.
The key fumbled in the lock as he let himself in, pushing the door shut behind him. His hands were shaking, teeth chattering as he went into deeper shock. He walked to the foot of the stairs then stopped as he heard his name called. Pearly turned his head to face his sire.
“You never said it’d be so…”
The boy looked down at his stained and torn clothing.
“So messy.”
He didn’t wait for a reply as he mounted the stairs and made his way toward the larger bathroom. Leaving his filthy clothing in a pile by the door he stepped under the shower head and turned on the hot water, not moving as the steaming water cascaded over him, washing away all traces of blood and gore.
“So messy..” he muttered softly to himself.
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Post by Pearly Gates on Aug 29, 2009 11:52:36 GMT -8
Ok this was getting beyond a joke. The youth stared at the collection of glass bottles, rolled up scrolls of parchment paper and endless lists and maps laid out on the table in front of him. His sire was talking, his voice full of energy despite the fact that he had to repeat everything he said. Pearly swung his feet a little as he perched on one of the kitchen stools, moving slightly to one side so that he could tuck his left hand under his thigh. He sighed and tried not to look too bored.
“So.. that is actual Holy water from a church font and we get burnt if we touch it?”
His sire nodded, hiding his frustration at how many times his childe would ask the same question.
“Well if we can’t touch it, how do we get it? I mean are there priests out there who are knowingly supporting the violence between vampires? Or does it get stolen? I’m not being funny but surely the local churches would notice that their fonts are getting emptied all the time? Actually..”
Pearly leant forward and poked at one glass vial with a pale finger.
“If this water is made holy by a priest blessing it and thus turning it into a weapon against us.. if a priest blessed a gun and the bullets, would they be able to kill a vampire? Because it makes sense right?”
He looked up at his sire and smiled. The boy didn’t expect his sire to be able to answer this, as he doubted it had been asked before but he almost got a buzz out of winding the other male up. He figured it was a way of paying him back for taking away his life and personal choice.
Pearly had to hand it to the man; he knew how to change the subject quickly and how to keep talking so that nobody could interrupt. His sire talked about the powers he’d need to get and how each one would advance his experiences. He then paused a while before casually mentioning how long it would take to get some of them.
“You mean I have to roam the streets, going all the way across the city to bleed and shout at certain points? And this will make me have more stamina? Can’t I just take speed or something?”
Pearly adopted a petulant expression and glared at the maps on the table.
“This will take ages.. I’ll probably get mugged along the way or worse, get followed by some crazy pervert with a fetish for dead kids. If I don’t make it back..”
As he spoke he gathered up the maps and headed toward the front door, tugging on his jacket before turning to smile at his sire.
“Always remember I owe you several thousand in coin and you won’t ever see that cash again.”
Pearly laughed, gave a brief wave of one hand and slipped out into the cool night air.
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Post by Pearly Gates on Sept 4, 2009 2:27:31 GMT -8
The boy sighed and shifted the weight of his bag from one shoulder to the next, looking dejectedly down yet another long and winding street. He had started on his quests feeling quite jovial and almost excited but now, several nights later, he was feeling exhausted and rather lonely. He kept in contact with his sire by phone and had met a few fellow vampires that seemed friendly enough but so far he hadn’t found anyone who was in a similar situation to himself. It would have been nice to find somebody whom he could quest with so that he didn’t have to sleep in unwelcoming hostels and wait around in dimly lit bars by himself night after night but these things had proven to be unavoidable.
The youth glanced down at the map in his hand to check where he was heading next and frowned. There was a large area ringed in red by his sire with the word ‘Ghetto’ written across it in the man’s neat penmanship. Pearly hadn’t noticed it before, being too involved in trying to work out which street was which, but now curiosity got the better of him and he decided that he would take a break in his power gathering to go and see exactly what this ghetto consisted off. After all, if he didn’t like it or found it too threatening, he could always walk away.
He heard the sound of the ghetto before he’d even reached the first bar. It was the sound of voices, some hushed and sinister, others loud and laughing. The air seemed to vibrate around him as the boy was confronted with the largest concentration of vampires he had ever imagined in one place. Not wanting to seem like the newcomer he was, Pearly kept his chin up as he walked into the first bar, eyes focussing on an empty chair that he soon found himself sitting in. He looked casually around the room, noting the interaction between others of his kind and taking notes mentally. There was an enormous sense of ease about the room and it was obvious that these patrons knew each other well. There were several male vampires in the lazy embrace of others of their own sex so Pearly assumed he must have entered a gay bar. It didn’t bother him; after all, in life he had paid his way through school by working in such places. He turned his gaze to the map still in his hand, folding it neatly and tucking it into the front pocket of his bag. Looking up, the youth noticed he was being watched. He returned the smile offered him by a male vampire and slipped into the kind of easy, vacuous conversation that occurred between strangers. So far, he felt unthreatened and at ease, although not so at ease as to let his guard down and take up the offer of a drink. He didn’t want to slip into the trap that his sire had warned him of where older, more city-wise vampires took advantage of those who were new and naïve.
And then a strange thing happened. He found himself talking a young woman who claimed to be his cousin, then he met an uncle and finally a great grandsire. Pearly had no idea how anyone knew who he was and made a mental note to ask his sire when he saw him next. It was a little unnerving to say the least, knowing he’d never be able to hide in a crowd but the boy figured he’d learn to live with it. At least he had been pleasantly surprised to discover that everyone he’d met was friendly and willing to answer his questions. Making his excuses, the boy left to continue his quest but he knew he’d return. After all, it saved him becoming lost in his own thoughts and who knew, maybe there he’d meet a likeminded vampire that he could grow up with. Romance? No, that wasn’t a priority for the boy, but he did want a close friend to confide in and thrash out his problems with. He figured everybody needed a best friend, even those who were no longer, strictly speaking, living.
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