#ggbn

She was so beautiful, I thought she was a heat mirage. I'd been walking for the better part of a day and the sun was strong that day. I was maybe an hour outside of Baltimore when I spotted someone in white on the side of the road. By the time I realized it was a woman, I'd already drawn my pistol. She didn't have a visible weapon and she was wearing a green sundress with a bonnet and I holstered my pistol as I approached.

She was short - well, probably just average height for a girl. Definitely shorter than me - skinny, too. Most people were these days, of course. She didn't have as many curves as I liked to see on a woman, but then again I could hardly be picky. I'd been traveling alone for the past year and other than a working girl back in the Capitol Wasteland, most of those nights had been pretty lonely.

The girl spotted me and I didn't see her reach for a weapon. She looked around kind of nervously, then raised her hand in a tiny little wave. I waved back. I could see a flash of teeth as she smiled, then she plucked the bonnet off her head and waved it around in the air. The hair underneath it was red and pinned up, but it had been tugged loose by the wind around her face. It was the kind of hair you thought about stroking gently, then maybe grabbing a big fistful of it.

"Hey!" She'd managed to get herself all the way over to me while I let my mind wander. She was quiet, for such an inexperienced thing. She looked young - maybe 19 if she was a day. She had a small bag that looked like it didn't hold much, plus a sad looking waterskien. "I'm Lily," she said brightly, sticking her hand out to me enthusiastically. I took it hesitantly and gave it a squeeze in my gloved hand. Her grip was as weak as I expected and I saw her wince a little when I shook her hand.

"Pleased to meetcha, Lily." Her eyes were distractingly green and up close I could see that there were freckles dotting her cheeks and nose underneath the deep tan. Her shoulders and arms were paler, and the freckles stood out even more there. I found myself wondering if they'd be even more obvious on her-

"-any idea where that is?"

Damn, she'd been talking to me. "Sorry, could you repeat that, darlin'?"

She smiled again. "I said that I'm trying to find my way to Zion - it's a church. My mama came from there and now that she's passed, I want to see if there's anyone there who should be told. Plus there's nothing keeping me back home now that my brother's moved on and the farm dried up. It's been so lonely there and I haven't had a soul to talk to…" She didn't sound like she was from around here, but I couldn't pin down her accent. When she talked, her voice had a kind of melody to it that almost made me feel sleepy.

"Sure, I know where Zion is - it's on my way, actually. Why don't we walk together?"

"Really? You don't mind - are you SURE you don't mind?"

"‘Course not, darlin'. But I'm getting a little hungry, what do you say we stop here for a bit and I get us a campfire going? That'd be nice and cozy." Watching her mouth while she talked had my mind quite firmly on getting nice and cozy with this girl. "Why don't you get the rest of your gear and we'll see what we've got to work with."

"This is all the gear I brought with me," she said, patting the sad satchel she had on her shoulder.

"That's it? Where's your sleeping bag? Or a coat?"

"I just left with what I could carry - eaten most all of my food and been sleeping out under the stars. I rely on Faith to help me survive adversity, just like my Mama taught me, may she rest in peace. I think it was providence that sent you to me, mister." She put her hand on my arm and distracted me from my thoughts. I was trying to figure how far I was from Baltimore and how long this girl had likely been on her own. Still, there was no sense dwelling on it when It looked like we were about to become such good friends.

It didn't take me any time at all to make camp - impressed the hell out of her, too. I maybe got a little flashy with the food I made - I wanted to show off my cooking skills so we got beans and some wild dog meat and the last of some bread I'd been saving. I was putting the finishing touches on her plate when I noticed she was looking off towards the remains of a billboard for  local drive in theater. It wasn't the first time I'd seen her look that way, now that I thought about it.

"Something wrong?"

"Hm? Oh! It's probably nothing. I just… I thought I saw something over there. Earlier I had a terrible vision, of… I don't know, i think it was a DEMON or something. It walked like a man but its face was…" She shivered and rubbed her hands over her bare arms.

"Probably just a ghoul," I assured her as my eyes watched the progress of her hands.

"A ghoul?"

"Yeah, they're folks who got too much radiation back when the bombs fell, but instead of dying, they turned into horrible monsters. Most of ‘em are crazy and eat people." Her eyes were wide and I realized I probably wasn't making her feel any better.

"And you think THAT'S what I saw?"

"Yeah, probably. Don't worry about it, though."

"Don't worry? I saw it a few minutes ago!"

"The fire's probably enough to spook it off, there's no need to get concerned. I'll protect you." I slid closer and wrapped an arm around her, drawing her in close. She fit perfectly under the crook of my arm, but as I leaned in towards her, she pulled away.

"Maybe you should go check. You know, just to be safe."

"Trust me," I said, "We're VERY safe." I ran my hand over her shoulder and down the curve of her back. The dress she had on was hardly enough protection from the elements and I could almost feel the goosebumps rising on her skin. I leaned in and kissed the side of her neck, tasting mingled sweat and the dust from the road.

She started to relax against me, but suddenly tensed and said, "I heard something!"

"It's nothing," I mumbled against her neck, moving down to her collarbone. I tugged at the strap of her dress and started tugging it down, but then stopped when I heard something over in the direction of the billboard. There was definitely something - or someone - over there.

"Okay, you wait here," I muttered. Reluctantly, I got to my feet and stepped towards the billboard, pulling my gun out of my holster.

"Is that a revolver?"

The question seemed unusually loud, and also pretty obvious. "Yeah, ain't you seen one before?" Maybe she really WAS sheltered. I turned and stomped over towards the source of the noise. There was a shuffle from behind me and when I looked over my shoulder, Lily was coming along after me. "Look, just wait back there okay? In case it's dangerous."

"It's not dangerous," she said with an impish smile. "You'll protect me, right?"

"Right." I sighed, then turned back. There was definitely a shadow on the other side of the billboard. I made my way over to the edge and rounded the corner. Sure enough, there was a ghoul there: crouched and holding a sniper rifle - which I thought was pretty weird. It had a face that looked like something you'd dig up out of an old grave and it was wearing leather armor. There were two bags on the ground by its feet and as I drew my gun and leveled it at the monster's face, it opened its mouth like it was trying to form words.

In fact, it did speak: in a voice that sounded like a rusty chainsaw being dragged through loose gravel, the ghoul said, "What the fuck, LIly?!"

Then I felt an intense pain in the back of my head and everything went black.

*** The burly man hit the ground face first. Lily was behind him, carefully balanced on her left foot. Her right foot was bare and she was holding her shoe by the toe. She looked at the man who lay crumpled at her feet, then looked past him to her very best friend. Lily grinned. "See? I had that totally under control."

"Oh, I see. Tell me, what part was the MOST under control: the part where he was trying to take off your dress, or the part where he almost SHOT ME IN THE FACE? Take your time before you tell me, I know it's a tough call."

"Dylan, I'm hurt!" She slipped her shoe back on and knelt by the unconscious man, plucking the gun from his hand and tossing it over to Dylan who caught it easily. "How long have we been traveling together now?"

"Ten years."

"Exactly. That's a DECADE, Dylan."

"I know how to count, Lil."

"And after spending all that time with me, you act like you don't even trust me."

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's BECAUSE I've spent all that time with you?"

"I know for a fact that he wouldn't have shot you, do you want to know why?"

"If I tell you can we get on with looting this asshole before he comes to?"

Lily just smiled and then held out a hand, clenched in a fist. When she spread her fingers, six bullets slipped out from between them and landed in the dirt, glinting in the light from the neglected campfire.

Dylan looked at them, then looked up at Lily.

"Come on, admit it: you're smiling at me."

"I am not!"

"You are too! ...Wait, aren't you? I mean, your face makes it hard to tell sometimes."

"Would you just shut up and get his gear?"

Golden Gate by Night is still running. I mean, this boggles my brain sometimes when I say it, considering I really thought when I started this game, it was going to be a throw away. A chance to let a few of my friends play Vampire who never had a chance, maybe to hook some new people into the joys of Table Top. You know the type of thing, and here it has passed a year of game play, a brand new chapter (the start of the fifth story of the game), and it has been running regularly every other week, for over a year. 

It started off huge, I mean almost too unwieldy, a ton of brand new players, who had no idea of the game, a few who knew a bit but had never really gotten there teeth into it and my darling easierbythree who was an old hand.

We lost a player, gained a couple of players, and the game rolled on. A few dramatic moments, but it was hard due to the size, I will admit it. I can’t believe I ran and managed 9 players in a vampire game, over a then-unfamilliar medium. (Roll20, for those of you who are curious.) 

We lost a few due to real life and other issues, but the game kept going, When we found ourselves down to four players, and myself, I thought this was the end of the game once I finished the chapter we were on, and that was awesome. It had a decent run.

Then I found a new pace to it. While I enjoyed the variety of a larger group, I found I liked the intimacy of a smaller group. I liked the ability to let the players shine, I liked the fact that I could make a major event out of a character’s engagement (which rudely a villain forced on her), and the players rolled with it. 

Last night, I started the newest chapter of the game. It went really well, the players encountered horrors based on the individual characters present, and had a brush-by encounter with some of the monsters they will be facing with out actually meeting them, and lots of creepy moments. I am looking forward to seeing how the game goes from here. It has always seemed like close to ending, collapsing in on itself, and for the first time since it started I feel like it may have a future, I have not seen.

So, to the players of Nat, Dove, Gina, Dom, Lily/Liz, Rory, Mason/Issan, Adelaide, Cesar/Dylan, Silas, Wren and Kishen thank you for playing in the game. Thank you to those of you who are still coming.

This story -- actually a dramatization of actual RP -- is actually several months behind.  I delayed posting it because my sense of Good RP Etiquette insisted that “I gotta write something about Mason’s death first!” and then I never actually did, mostly because there was a slew of amazing stories about it and I wound up feeling like I had nothing else to contribute on the topic, and in the best possible way -- like I actually got genuinely concerned that although she played a crucial role, anything I wrote from Nat’s POV would basically come off as trying to upstage the more important players in this particular drama, and I ultimately didn’t want to do that. So if you want to know what happened prior to this story, please go read this fucking phenomenal story from Mason’s own POV (and if you feel like more sadness, this post from Gina and this one from Dove), and then if you feel like watching my poor broken baby combat Tremere fail at both repressing and expressing her feelings, read below the cut.

...oh right, it was also delayed because it outed what was then a pretty big secret.  I mean hi Gina, how you doing?

Or, why she wasn’t actually the least bit sad about shooting the fuck out of him on Saturday.

January, 2000.

The Professor let out a pained sigh, and set down his pen.  “Did Ravenskirs not warn you against lurking in open doors, neonate? Or did he focus solely on the etiquette regarding open thighs?”