When he gets home Derek takes his burgers out to the grill on his patio and makes dinner. After he eats and finishes up a few pages of a paper that he has due the next week Derek decides to light the fire outside and pullout a book to read by the fire until the fire has burned down then heads up to bed. The next day Derek wakes up late as he only has two classes that day, or one since he's not going to lab. After his first and only class, organic chemistry, Derek goes for a run in the nearby park before jogging back home and getting ready to head out to the gallery.
Derek nods to the retreating forms before heading back to his truck muttering quietly under his breath "Hey Nanna I tried, I made the offer, they refused, end of story." Derek swings himself into his truck and pulls out head home to some burgers and maybe a book by the fire.
Derek shrugs at Professor Wilcox's remark "I freely admit that I'm getting my info, at the very least, second hand. It's more then likely a bit wrong. As for food, I've actually got some burger patties thawing at home that I was going to grill up so I'll have to pass. ... Actually if anyone's interested I've got more than I can eat, they were supposed to last the week but if anyone would like one, they're welcome to." Derek finishes his offer in a bit of a mumble as he stuffs his hands in his pockets awkwardly.
Derek's offer is directed at anyone still in the area, including Diana and Summer if there still there (though he's expecting them to say no considering they're on their way to a movie)
"I can't be totally sure but my lab was cancelled and according to my friend a number of other classes were cancelled as well"turning to Diana he continues. "Well, it was nice to meet you Diana. Well I uh, hope you enjoy your movie I suppose."
"It's not so much the general interest that confuses me, Ricky was a cool guy and a lot of people knew him. What confuses me is the schools reaction to this Romney is canceling most of its classes so people can go, I get allowing absences, but straight up canceling class? It doesn't make sense."
"Well not everyone does, it's always been something my family did together so I'm rather fond of it but I can see how it would be unappealing to some. Good way to keep food on the table though." realizing that he's continuing to talk to the the girl that has already expressed the fact that she's scared of him rather clearly, Derek backs off a bit and glances in the direction of the truck in front of the Gallery. "So anything interesting happening or has this been pretty much it?" he asks to no one in particular.
When Diana shrinks back Derek's smile drops a little and he raises a self-conscious hand to his scars. "Sorry didn't mean to scare ya, still not used to these things." after his somewhat automatic and hurried apology Derek forces a smile back on his face. "Haven't introduced myself yet have I. Names Derek, Derek Byrne, I'm an environmental studies and biology student at Romney State. Sorry again about the scars, hunting accident a few years ago, I know they can set some people on edge." Derek scratches the back of his head awkwardly after his introduction but brightens up when the dog comes running over. Derek quickly drops to one knee to greet the dog when it arrives, listening to the now introduced Diana's conversation with the other girl before once more introducing himself. "Seems like half of Romney is going to be at this thing, some of my classes were even canceled so students could go."
Derek sighs at Dennis' response. "yeah yeah, it's going to be boring as hell with no one to talk about stuff with though. might just take a quick glance then walk down main-street. Derek shrugs as he jumps in his truck and starts it up. "Well I'll let you get going to your paper then. I'll see you around man." As he pulls away Derek hits the radio and laughs to himself. "Not like that my ass."
At the Gallery:
After pulling into a parking spot along the street Derek jumps out of a four door Toyoto Tundra pick-up. As he walks along the street he notices Professor Wilcox and the small group he's talking with. Derek hesitates for a moment before walking up to the group, not wanting to interrupt anything important or confidential, but after hearing Ricky's name and mention of the gallery he walks up to them. as he approaches he recognizes the two girls as students at his college, no one he knows but he's noticed them around campus.
As he approaches anyone who bothers can get a good look at him, Derek is approaching 6ft, has a lean frame, short dark red hair, and has a very distinct set of three scars running from just his left ear to under his chin. He's dressed dark cargo pants, boots, a light camo jacket over a red t-shirt.
Derek walks up to the group with one hand in his pocket and the other raised in greeting, and a casual smile, trying not to show how thankful he is that there's someone else here."Hey Professor, assorted friends of the Professor. Here to check out the Gallery as well?"
Russel:
Derek knew Russel as a professor before going to him as a doctor. Took intro to psych or something similar, its why he came to you in the first place, at least that's what I was thinking. And he refers to you as Professor when he's talking to you as a teacher and Doctor when he's talking to you as his doctor just to keep things straight.
"Oh ok, I know the place. My Gran used to go there sometime." Derek rests his head back against the truck for a second before pushing himself off the vehicle. "Hey if not up to anything interesting today you want to do a drive by of the place, maybe check it out before seeing what else there is to do in town?" Derek moves to jump in his truck unless anything stops him.
Hey loup mind if I trade my firearm style merits for the new archery ones. They seem to fit better. Also should have a post up tonight or tomorrow, damn finals.
Derek chuckles lightly at Dennis's response "Come on man, you know I'm just yanking your chain. Anyway all this talk of missing people, art galleries, and potential class skipping has put me off studying, you know if there's anything interesting happening in town today?" Derek pauses a bit and blinks. "That's got to be the weirdest sentence I've ever said. ... Oh right before I forget when/where is this art thing tomorrow, so I can put a reminder in my phone?"
Derek looks up at the mention of Ricky's name, "Something about Ricky? Huh, wonder if they found anything new? Definitely think I'll check that out." Derek looked over at Dennis and grew a bit of a devils smile. "So Dennis, you and Gwen eh? You going to the opening together? Didn't you just meet her in class this semester? Didn't realize you were such a playboy, haha."
"Oh, hey Dennis, sorry spaced out a bit there. Seems like it's been nonstop work recently a break would be nice." Derek paused for a bit before scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "So, umm what's opening tomorrow again? Heh heh sorry man like I said I've been totally out of it the last few days. Derek continues walking to the parking lot as he talks, and when he gets to his truck he tosses his backpack and coat into the back before checking to make sure his bow is in its case in passenger seat. After making sure his baby was were it was supposed to be he leaned up against the side of his truck to continue his conversation
I agree that investigation was high so I shifted a point over to science, I intend for medicine to be a bit on the upper end because of his extensive study of after he shot the hunter, the biology minor is also supposed to be a premed first responder kind of deal. I did switch resolve and wits, I was kind of in between on the two so if you think wits fits then sure. For the bow what would you suggest for an initiative mod cause I don't thin a minus 5 fits (that was the crossbows). I'll look into fixing the background asap.
for anyone who's new to the system here's a copy of calculations for your characters advantages. If you have an actual character sheet for the system these can also be found at the very bottom of the sheet. And at the bottom is the web address to an interactive character sheet that I find helpful, the only flaws I've found in it is that it doesn't have a full list of merits and that its awkward to type in,
Attributes 5/4/3
Skills 11/7/4 (+3 Specialties)
Merits 7
Health = Stamina + Size
Willpower = Resolve + Composure
Size = 5 for adult humans
Defense = Lowest of Dexterity or Wits + Athletics
Initiative Mod = Dexterity + Composure
Speed = Strength + Dexterity +5
Starting Integrity = 7
And I reread that post and realized that I explained the wrong thing, oops, I blame the headache. so i went back and checked here's what the book says on integrity:
Human characters encountering the supernatural suffer great strains to their composure, as well as to their very psyches. The measure of a person’s self-image, her psyche, and her soul’s health is called Integrity.
this is from chronicles, integrity is the new morality mechanics wise it acts the same, Sorry bout the mix up.
@Doomkitten: your morality starts off at seven and has a range of between 0-10, it basically measures how close you mentally line up with the norms of the human race, if I remember correctly. The questions you answered at recruitment set a baseline for the Gm of how much crap your character has had to deal with and of where your breaking points are, example: shooting someone (for your character) would probably cause you to roll for morality, however if the Sargent has seen active combat he might not have to roll morality for shooting someone. When you roll morality you usually roll just the number of dice equal to you morality score, if you succeed conjrats you didn't freak out for shooting someone, hopefully in self defense, if you fail you lose a point of morality. The lower your morality the less you fit in to society though I don't remember exactly what happens mechanically.
I get that right Gm? Cause if I didn't I got to go reread the books again haha.
Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, I've been under the weather. Mechanics are mostly up, still playing around with merits a bit, and should have my timeline finished and up by tomorrow. For now though, more aspirin and back to bed.
So going back and looking at the concepts for characters I'm notice no shortage for potentially mental based characters, as Derek can easily be made as a physical character I'm going to go ahead and do that. It'll change the end result a bit but should be interesting.
Hey loup quick btw sorry if my post looks weird my laptop is caput so I have to post on my phone.
Long ass post:
Anyway why do I prefer bow hunting, well there are a number of reasons I guess but the top one is that's it's what I learned, my father was a bow hunter and so was my grandfather. I remember when I was really young the three of us went on a hunting trip together, I didn't catch a damn thing haha. The second reason is that I just consider it more sporting at least more then sniping an animal from hundreds of feet away, before they even know you're there. Finally enjoy it and the different things you can do with it. I played Lara Croft a few years ago, and like the stupid teen I was, I tried replicating some of the stunts, they didn't work and I got an earful from my Pop (grandad). That was however how I got into some trick shooting and bow fishing (still not very good though haha)
As for Mum and Pop, yeah we were pretty close. My dad was their only kid so I'm their only grand kid. They doted on me a lot and were great grandparents. I used to spend summers with them up at their place before I moved in permanently. My favorite memory with the two of them would have had to have been when they took me on a trip down to Washington D.C. They were both retired by the time I was born so they had plenty of time, though looking back I'm not sure how they had the money for all the trips we took I'm not really sure what they did before they retired as we never really talked about it, always assumed it was some kind of government thing but whatever it was they were well traced and they new all the coolest places. Anyway back on topic, while we were in D.C. They took me to all the museums and landmarks, we even got a tour of the capital building though my favorite was the science museum. Since we drove down we stopped at a bunch of places along the way especially when we drove through Philadelphia. I have a picture in my wallet of the three of us standing in front of the liberty bell, they didn't deserve what happend to them.
Sorry that got longer then I intended. Age wise Derek is 20 turning 21 soon(ish) and I was picturing him as a senior but he could also be a junior. Grandparents former occupation is a hook you can use if you want, if not I was just thinking they were low level government works with some security clearance and money ran in the family, they also happend to enjoy traveling.
So I've been thinking about what you said about the change in schools not making sense, and you're right so I've tried to change some things around a little bit and it snowballed a little. but first a question, do you want our characters to have a reason to be actively looking into Ricky's case, or simply be interested enough to follow up a random lead that they happen to find?
the accident where Derek shot another hunt happened as a rising senior, and though no official charges were brought up the media managed to get a hold of the story and made him out to be some kind of troubled kid. after the accident number of colleges rejected his application, siting various reasons. In the end Derek sent an App to Romney State where his grandparents had graduated from and still had connections. Derek was accepted to Romney as an Environmental science major and biology minor. (Derek met Ricky at orientation, and has had a couple classes with him) After spending the first year with his grandparents Derek had he hunting accident that left him in the hospital. His grandmother being the worrier that she is decided to do some research on similar attacks in the area and partition the city council (or whatever form of gov there is) to try and have the beast that attacked him hunted down. A day before she was supposed to officially meet the Council both her and her husband died in a car crash coming home from lunch. the police said it was a drunk driver and that the driver also died in the crash. Derek ended up missing a semester at Romney as he felt with the loss, after asking around a little he found that the other driver was a john doe as the wreck had messed him up and no one had reported any one missing and the man had no id in the car.
after returning to school Derek soon heard about Ricky's disappearance and can't help thinking that there's something weird happening in this town.
New long term aspiration: who the hell was the guy that hit my grandparents? and was it really an accident?
