An SI Requiem [SI/Multi]

[ryuan]

My life was, put simply, boring.

I didn't had any exceptional skills, wasn't handsome, wasn't strong, wasn't strong willed, and most definitely wasn't lucky. To be entirely charitable I fell into the mystical 'average joe' category if only because it would make me utterly unassuming and uninteresting on the grand scheme of things. Not so bad as to elicit a feeling of pity from strangers, not good enough to actually enjoy my life, and I was stranded enough with my family that I can bet my ass they would feel more relieved and annoyed than anything if I dropped dead right this instant.

Which was why me meeting with a half naked, musclebound man with luxurious wavy black hair and three horns on his head on the middle of the night as I was returning home took me completely by surprise.

"Hmm... low physical ability, by the looks of surprise and the faint odor I can smell the fear coming from you so you're not courageous either." He spoke in perfect english, which I only understood due to spending too much time on foreign online forums. "I can see the small calluses of your hand so you're a physical laborer of shorts so not particularly smart on top of that." He sized me up, somber look soon replaced into a smug grin. "You should do nicely".

"What-"

"Anu."

With this simple word, the world shifted and I found myself on a red ground of sorts, the starry sky greeting me and nothing but dry soil and rocks as far as the eye could see.

I was also starting to choke from the lack of air.

From the corner of my vision I could see the man who took me here gazing at me, debating if he should let me die right them and there, before something in the world shifts once more, and suddenly there was someone as if it was always there.

He spoke some words I couldn't recognize, before the new arrival came in.

He was also a musclebound man, though much paler than the one who brought me here. Short hair, brown eyes, no scars or blemishes on his skin that I could see, he could have easily become a model or celebrity back at home. He opened his mouth displaying a pair of fangs and before I could do anything more than flail ineffectually at him he bit me on the neck.

I admit, being bitten by him felt like the highest point of the night so far since I felt such an incredible high it's difficult to describe. Just as I keenly felt the life drain out of me my nerves where flaying with pleasure, and I couldn't do much other than stay still trying not to drool. Soon however I felt myself become sleepier and colder, until my arms hanged limp on the side.

That's how I died, not with a bang but with barely a whimper.

.

.

.

"GRAAAHHH!" I immediately bite on the offered hand and start taking in the delicious, delicious life giving liquid. I gorge myself on it until I can't anymore, before regaining my bearing. "What, what happened? Where am I?"

"You, my former primitive life form, is my newest experiment to see if lower classes of mystical or biological beings can reach transcendent on their own. As experiment number R-113 you will be sent to a place where I can study your development."

"Trans... transcendence? What are you talking about? Who are you?"

The man chuckles before striking a pose with his arms at his sides as if he was modeling for a magazine. "I am the Ultimate Life Form of Earth, Kars."

I recognized the name instantly, widening my eyes and earning another chuckle from the Pillar Man in front of me. "I see even low lives like you recognize their betters. But it's no matter, for even if you recognize my name your situation won't change. Though I suppose I should give you the necessary information for this experiment not to fail immediately. Now sit down and listen."

I did as instructed, not wanting to aggravate the super vampire in front of me.

"You have become a Vampire, shredding your former mortal, human self. More specifically, you're what I can a mystical vampire, Requiem variant. In return for your mortality you gained powers beyond what your mortal self had, but your immortality has a price, being forever the enemy of the sun and fire consuming your flesh and bones like oil to the flame. You have been cursed with a Beast inside with you, and unless you wish to become a mindless beast I would advise you to retain your Humanity at all costs. You should be able to have access to some special mystical powers of your own to start, though nothing even on the level of a Stone Mask vampire, at least not initially."

He turned, and dismissed the other vampire in front of me with a wave of his hand, the world shifting once more and suddenly he simply wasn't there as if he was never there in the first place.

"The experiment starts now. Try not to die too early and waste my time with you. Your predecessors were all disappointing in the end, R-113."

Before I could say or do anything, the world shifted a last time and the world went dark.

 

[ryuan]

I opened my eyes to see I was in some kind of forest, with enough space between the trees to walk a group of people without problems. The ground was littered with fallen leaves, the light of the moon and stars illuminating everything almost like it was daylight.

Standing up I dusted myself and picked a direction at random before starting to jog towards any hints of civilization. While I think I could feed on animals at this point, it would still be better to find at least a village in order to feed and get my bearings. Sadly I had an habit to think while jogging, which while it helped to distract me and finish a jog quickly, this time it had the problem of allowing me to stew on my problems.

If by 'Requiem type' mystical vampire it meant what I thought, the mentions of The Beast and Humanity being a factor to it, then I'm most likely a vampire in the same vein of the game Vampire The Requiem, the successor to Vampire The Masquerade from White Wolf. From what I remember of the game, there were a couple of things I had to keep in mind.

Touchstones were important. Technically I could have more than one but they would cost 'merit point's, which translated to reality meant I had to commit a lot of time and effort into maintaining them, not counting the fact they must have some emotional significance for me. But since I started at Humanity 7, or in other words I was still more 'man' than 'beast' at this stage I don't need to panic about it yet, though at the first opportunity when I would invariably commit a heinous act and my sanity would start to fracture I would need the Touchstone, otherwise I would eventually fall into Torpor, the sleep of the dead.

Assuming, of course, that everything went according to the book. It might be the first edition, in which case losing humanity would make me slowly crazier than otherwise expected, or an entirely different Requiem type mystical vampire he were talking about.

Either way, that didn't change the fact that I need to find civilization soon.

As I was passing through I saw an owl sitting on a tree branch. Immediately something in me shifted, and I knew that I could do something with it. Approaching the owl I started 'hooing' at the bird while at the same time trying to convey my intention towards it.

"Where's the neared city", I asked the owl, "where there are a gathering of humans?"

Sadly I had startled the creature, who flew just as I got closer to it.

Guess that's what happens when you try using a power you're not used to. At least I somewhat confirmed that I do have a few supernatural abilities of my own, and not all of them are costly in terms of energy. I think I could try to speak and perhaps even command animals all night long without problems. If I would be successful on the other hand, that's the question.

Oh well, guess I just need to keep running in order to find civilization.

 

[ryuan]

After what I assumed was a few hours later, I found a dirt road at the end of the road. Sadly I couldn't find any animal that stayed still long enough for me to try my trick (which I will call the Animalism Discipline for convenience's sake). While running through the forest I noticed something though.

I have much, much more stamina than before, which allowed me to run a for a very long while at a good speed, something that previously would make me pant with exertion quickly. While I could chalk that up to my new undead resilience, it won't do to try and apply conventional rules of biology to my existence. After all I'm a mystical vampire according to Kars, which means I don't even run on the pseudo-science the stone masks vampires run on.

Still, I was half expecting for my abilities to remain mostly the same even with my new condition, and while I'm still far away from the raw power a stone mask vampire possessed right out of the bat, it was still a rather impressive change from my previous physical condition, even if my body remained otherwise unchanged aside form the whole being dead thing going on. My weight was still around a hundred kilos at my rather average one hundred seventy two centimeters, making me visibly fat though not overwhelmingly so, though the fact that I would never naturally lose that weight unless I performed some kind of plastic necro-surgery was grating.

I sighed, somewhat put off by my current lack of panic. Overall I was holding up to things well enough I suppose, though I couldn't quite place it why. Perhaps my senses deadened with the transition between living being and undead monster? Or the transformation changed me more than physically? Or perhaps I had finally completely run out of fucks to give?

I didn't know, and at the time I didn't care. I only cared about finding a city or town or even village and find a safe place to sleep before daylight hit.

~~O~~

Some time passed and I figured out that even with my new prodigious stamina I could get tired, but differently from when I was a mortal a couple of minutes of rest basically brings me back to full 'health' once more, so I made good time on the run.

Still, I was starting to feel lethargic and tired in a way that was different from my earlier physical exertion. Looking around I saw the moon had been gone from the sky, and off in the distance I heard a rooster cry out in the distance.

Fuck, daylight would soon come! I looked around and found nothing to hide under, not even a large rock to hide under the shadow, or even trees to offer some minimal protection from the direct rays of light, only the dirt road and wilderness as far as the eye could see. Goddamn it, I don't want to die, not now, not like this! I wanted to at least try my hand at punching that asshole ultimate life form at least once!

The sky was already starting to change colors, and I was feeling even more lethargic than before. I was fortunate then, when I got out of the road in a passing fit, something on my mind clicked once I stepped into raw dirt, and instantly I sunk into the ground like I was melding with the earth.

I could somehow feel the light of the day reaching the spot I was before a few minutes later, and as if that sealed a deal, I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

Night came back in an instant, and I felt something inside me dry up just as I seamlessly emerged from the ground. There wasn't much dirt on me, which I quickly dusted off before continuing my run through the road.

Also while before it was a throbbing sensation I could mostly ignore, now it was a dryness on my throat that keep me thinking back how hungry I was.

After a few more hours of running, I had finally arrived at my next destination. It was a small village by the looks of it, with a couple of wooden houses. There were no lights on the streets even though I could see everything with perfect clarity. I was probably somewhere with low technology level, which could mean a lot of different things, but for now it meant that trying to feed from the local population would be harder than expected. I just hoped I had enough self-control to not kill my first victim.

~~O~~

The village had a small tavern open until late at night, and I entered it and looked for an empty table. There were a few people looking at me when I entered, taking stock of my clothing. Compared to their own simple linen cloth that came straight out of a medieval fair mine was definitely strange, with a pair of jeans, a blue t-shirt and a pair of black sneakers. Still they went back to their drinks soon enough and I was left alone for the most part.

They were also speaking something close to english, which I was grateful for even if the conversation itself was dull. Talk about farms, about the church, about the Lords, talk about the King...

"Excuse me", I said while most definitely not focusing on how I could hear their heartbeats so clearly, with such precious lifeblood on them, "I'm a bit lost. Can I know which village this is?"

The trio who were drinking looked at me for a few moments before one of then answered. "You're on the village of Little Whinging stranger, may I ask where you came from?" Of course he didn't said that in such a modern, clear way, but it was enough I could parse through his words.

"I'm a foreigner from the continent." I answered back with my own accent. "I was kidnapped and trust into this land with no way to go back home, and I have been wandering the wilderness for a while now until I stumbled in this village."

They looked at me and my clothing, and I could see the gears turning on their heads. They probably thought I was a rich merchant that escaped captivity, or something along those lines. Their gazes lingered on me for a while, before they shrugged and went back to their drinks. "A toast then", said one of the trio, "to you freedom, and for better luck to come your way."

"Aye", the other two chorused before downing their own drinks.

As I went back to my corner of the tavern, I keep watching them and hearing the rhythm of their heartbeats.

~~O~~

"Are you going to drink something or not?" Asked the barmaid after some time passed.

I keep looking at the trio of drunks going on before shrugging at her. "No money."

"Well, if you don't have any money you can get out. We're soon closing anyway."

I stood up and left, but remained close to the place for a while to wait for my targets. 'Targets', not two days a vampire and I'm already dehumanizing my victims. I shacked my head dispersing those thoughts, now not the time.

Some time later the trio left the tavern, parting ways. I followed the one that looked more drunk out of the bunch, until we had turned a few corners and he was stumbling on the walls.

With speed and decisiveness I didn't knew I had in me, I grappled him from behind, putting one of my hands on his mouth and with a swift, powerful motion I bit on his neck, drinking the lifeblood of him.

It was glorious, the second best thing I had in my life hands down. I drank and drank from him until I felt him start to go limp on me, and I realized right then and there I could easily kill him. I thanked the heavens for the shred of self control I still had on me, before reluctantly taking my fangs away from his neck and licking the wound, sealing it as if it was never injured in the first place.

I let the man go and he flopped down on the ground, weak, but still living.

Afterwards I ran to the edges of the village, fearing that someone had spotted me, and without thinking I sank back on the ground.

Thus I started my journey through my Requiem.