The Mile Higher Club has a few deviants, er, deviations from canon. This is what I call "loose canon", and it's one of the things I find wholly refreshing about working with the folks at Steve Jackson Games. Truly, any company that has built a highly successful game system ("Munchkins") that parodies too-serious gamesters has got my happy attention.
Below then are notes of where, for purposes artistic or practical, that Mile Higher Club has differed from In Nomine canon.
(Yes as a matter of fact, I do make it up as I go along!)
Character creation
First premise
Destiny/Fate clarification
Celestial language in the corporeal
realm—house rule
Locations and Dramatis Personae
Loose canon: magick
and sorcery
House
rule: Possession and link to recap
Songs and the Symphony
Settings 1: churches and cathedrals
Settings 2: Watts/South Central
L.A.
07-25-2007, 07:52 PM #1
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
[OOC] In Nomine: the Mile Higher Club
Character
creation i.e. points and other crunchiness is now highlighted in red below.
Please make sure to read the whole post--this is to clarify what I expect, not
to leave the impression that the rest is filler. "Minor" additions in
blue thereafter.--th
Game: In Nomine
Setting: modern day Los Angeles and environs, and on commercial aircraft
Books needed: IN Core (though if you're quick-witted and willing to ask
questions you could almost function without it)
Books suggested: GM's guide, Superiors' books, Corporeal Players Guide
House rules: For the initial run, there will be no challenges and thus no
immediate need to send a character sheet anywhere. I will accept three posts
from any one character before I get fussy about seeing your stats.
I don't have canon memorized and I don't expect anyone else to. Have fun. If
I'm way off base on a game mechanic I don't mind if you call me on it, but
please don't nit pick. Lawyers go to Hell :D
Contact me at theheretik at earthlink dot net, please
be certain to put "In Nomine" somewhere in
your subject line. You may also post in my LiveJournal
community In Nomine Live
A live/chat game component runs approximately monthly--watch this thread.
Stats and mechanics: Celestials, soldiers, saints, mortals--have at it. Mortals
with strange powers or massive influence should run them by me first. Zombis, undeads, ghosts, gods,
???--please run them by me before posting. Characteristics
should be base character levels, skills up to 12 points,
songs/distinctions/non-innate attunements no more than three total. Relics, artifacts
and the like should be run past me first. No Celestial weapons please. In addition, take one average Role. Celestials may not take
attunements that are specific to other bands/choirs, i.e. all band/choir
attunements are Restricted for MHC. DarkMistress has
given us a dice roller for challenges in the chat game--I'll keep dice by my
side or we can find some other creative way if we hit challenges here on PbP.
PbP Mile Higher Club is linked to the chat game, but
a player may play either or both.
Tone, influence, etc.
My background is primarily in LARP, so expect a game to focus on interaction
between player characters. Hack and slash will not be tolerated--if I wanted to
play an MMO I wouldn't be here. Humor is welcome, charm is wonderful, and dark
humor is good. Drama among characters is welcome. If you want to see an
excellent example of that, pick up Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lifeboat".
Other movies/books that influence me in things like this:
The Prophecy, at least the first three of them.
Supernatural, the television show on the CW
Jericho
Brimstone, a show back in 1998 with John Glover as the Devil.
other movies: Hellraiser,
Don Juan de Marco, Coffee and Cigarettes, Liar Liar,
Suicide Kings, Ocean's Eleven/Twelve, Devil's Advocate, Constantine
works of Ambrose Bierce, Ray Bradbury, and Neil Gaiman
Army @ Love comic book series.
music of Gary Numan and VNV
Nation
Thelema and other works of Aleister
Crowley
The premise, short version: Your character travels by commercial air, and finds
a peculiar message tucked in the pocket of the seat in front of him/her. He/she
may reply, but needs to be aware that anyone on that plane can potentially read
it. Replies should not only include the content of the message but its medium
i.e. "Scribbled on page 34 of the boring in-flight magazine in front of
seat 26D." There may or may not be other player characters on board, but
you won't know if you don't look for them.
Premise, long version. Copied from above-mentioned LJ:
The
Mile Higher Club
Field work can be tedious and full of hassles. You certainly miss just zipping
over to a friend in the Heavens (or Hell, though that’s its own set of
hassles). Here you have to get a phone number, get a phone, and hope they
answer—at best. But it’s part of the job, and the most
important job there is. Because The War in the end is about
these souls, and you can’t save souls if you don’t understand them. So
here you are, in an immersion course in Humanity.
Part of understanding humanity is these hassles, and a
feeling something-like-loneliness when you can’t get through. Sure, with your
Role you have friends, but they’re different. They don’t—mostly can’t—know the
real you. What you wouldn’t give to sit across the table with someone else
who’s been in The Presence, someone who knows what it’s like to have a Word
even if you don’t talk about it.
Somebody understands. He—or she?—left a message on the back of seat 35C on the
flight from LA to SFO. “Netzach, Mile Higher Club,
welcome” was all it said. Sure enough though, if you laid the Tree of Life over
the plane’s seating plan, you were sitting right at Netzach.
You smiled, summoned up a bit of Essence, and added your own coda. “Binah, received” and on your way out tucked a little
essence in the pocket of seat 12B.
You stepped just a little lighter that day, and promised yourself to take that
flight again sometime.
GameMaster notes:
Message board represents coded/concealed messages left on a plane. The
celestials have a knack for knowing which plane—they won’t get it right every
time, but they’ll get it pretty consistently.
The messages can potentially be intercepted.
All messages in the forum will be available to all celestials. For whatever
reason, your character does not grab the note so that others don’t read it.
I will accept up to three new players/characters when Corat
(the Windy NPC) goes to aircraft again, i.e. during the next scene break.
Master links: Angelfire page
__________________
08-26-2007,
04:14 PM
#23
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
Mr.
No Hope--clarification
Bouncing some ideas
off friends and fellow players, trying to make that clear. (This is something
that came up in the chat game, and will play through the PbP.
One of the characters ran Divine Destiny on and got "he has no
Destiny".)
Now, the rule in the book on Divine Destiny is that it only shows up on
mortals. Frankly, though, my own quote haunts me: "Lawyers go to Hell
:D". I didn't think of this at the time, didn't point it out, so the Yvesian can reasonably assume she's dealing with one very
weird bird, who doesn't have a destiny.
This has involved a rewrite of the Dark Man--he was originally going to be a Balseraph of Saminga. He may yet
be, or...
House rule on Divine Destiny (and Fated Future):
An angel of Yves looks at someone to determine what his or her Destiny is, his
or her Fate, and sees it as though it were written in script above his or her
head, and knows it to be accurate.* How it got there is not as simple.
Yves maintains a library--everybody knows this. Does Kronos,
or does he have a card in Yves'? That's not so clear. The mechanism for Divine
Destiny is not unlike pulling up a web page--the angel sends a mental image of
the person she's reading as though it were a URL. Yves' server sends back the
results. Now Yves is good, very very good, but he's
not perfect.
He's got files on all mortals, or 99.9998% of them.
Celestials his numbers aren't so good, or maybe the server's just reluctant to
pull them up. You'll get results most of the time, but not always. Superiors,
for instance...don't even try to read them. They've got filterware.
;)
Others, be they animals, ethereals, undead, or
whatnot, you'll rarely find files on them. It happens, such as in the case of Barbaro, where that individual will have an impact on the
world.
Sometimes the angel reading Divine Destiny will get the equivalent of a
"401 Unauthorized", usually in the case of a celestial though
sometimes when trying to read an Other.
What you got on Dark Man is closer to a "404 Not
Found". Worth looking into, certainly.
This is me as a GM. If I say something off-the-cuff, I adjust the backstory to fit. I try not to alter anything I've put in
play if I can humanly help it.
__________________
--A GameMaster is a Balseraph.
Everything he or she says is true, must be true, within the game.
Therefore a GameMaster is a demon. But you knew
that.--
*added to this webpage only as a later edit: my inspiration for this particular image
comes from the film “Death Note: the Last Name” and looks something like
this. The mechanism in the film is
different from MHC.
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08-30-2007,
07:47 AM
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#27
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Archangel
Beth
In Nomine Line Editor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Frozen Wastelands of NH
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Re:
[OOC] In Nomine: the Mile Higher Club
p. 187, box, The
Dark Celestial Tongue.
*(ob-Lilim: If you bought the PDF core rules, you
could have a copy on your computer anywhere... };> )*
EDIT: I stuck an [OOC] into this thread's subject line, to help distinguish
it from the IC one. Moment of panic when posting here and all that.
EDIT2: GMs are, of course, free to house-rule anything. I was just providing
the page number for reference purposes. O:>
__________________
--Beth
Shamelessly adding Superiors: Lilith to her .sig
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08-30-2007,
10:40 AM
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#28
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tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
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Re: On the Angelic
Language and L.A.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Methariel
Well, so I may suppose that Los
Angeles has become slightly more
"habitable" to someone of the Host since the events in "Fall
of the Malakim"? (Perhaps the Watts
Tether (to Eli) has reopened?)
Another question I do have concerns the use of the Angelic
"language".
I thought it was impossible to use it directly on Earth (as opposed to Helltongue, which is warped enough so that it can be
used corporeally). Only angels of Michael with the "Vassal of
War"-Distinction were able to use it on Earth - so I thought.
(It is all written somewhere in the main rulebook, in one of these nice
grey boxes; but I don't have my rulebook around at the moment.)
Angels have to use the "Singing"-skill to "hum"
Angelic, hoping that fellow angels get what they want to say. (But I forgot
how the rules exactly work.)
I think it's a nice idea, making Angelic so pure and True that it can't be
spoken on Earth - or at least in a corporeal vessel.
Is that so?
Methariel
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I don't think I have have Fall of the Malakim, so an Eli tether in Watts--not
a problem. Eli would be less threatening to the demons than say, Laurence.
You're correct on angelic language (thanks for the pg. number BTW) but in
this case it's GM ex machina, loose canon.
;) I needed some way for the NPC to be able to positively identify the PC's,
and it was the simplest way I could think of. It also shows you that at that
time he was not above doing something identifiably non-human.
If we want to say that the PC's and Corat all have
Singing/Humming, I don't mind at all.
There's one other bit of loose-canon-ness (I love that pun) that is written
into the new-and-improved Dark Man. I hope you enjoy it.
Barbara
__________________
--A GameMaster is a Balseraph.
Everything he or she says is true, must be true, within the game.
Therefore a GameMaster is a demon. But you knew
that.--
Last edited by tHEhERETIC : 08-30-2007
at 10:45 AM.
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09-14-2007,
04:19 PM
#45
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
Locations and
Characters list
Since we're all
converging on the same location (finally! says my LARP brain) I thought it wise
to take a moment and note who and what is where, from what I can see.
Feel free to introduce your character as well as yourself. I find that usually
folks play better when they have a sense of each other as people, though in all
fairness I like the direction MHC is taking so far and don't feel it needs
correction. Not what I had in mind when I conceived/titled it, but better.
So without further ado:
Locations:
*** On board commercial aircraft. This usually is just where introductions and
entrances take place, but you never know.
*** Los Angeles and its environs.
The 'Release the Bats' chat episode took place in Anaheim which is technically
the next county over, but hereabouts people drive a lot so the distinction
doesn't mean much.
Within Los Angeles:
***The airport. Los Angeles International unless otherwise noted. Highly secure, huge and with amazingly adequate parking.
Ugly traffic though.
*** The Tradewinds pawnshop. Yes, it's an actual
pawnshop. Owned and operated by Mitchim('s role).
*** The Blue Dog. Coffeehouse and hangout somewhere on Fairfax.
Not much has been established yet about this place.
*** Tether of Eli, somewhere in Watts. Watts, for those who don't know, is a
very rough part of town where two gangs live and kill within blocks of each
other. Unfortunately that's reality too.
Dramatis Personae: Player Characters in order of appearance
*** Mitchim, Seraph of Trade and owner of the Tradewinds pawnshop. No-nonsense and
serious. Finds Corat a bit flighty (forgive
the pun). played by Puck
*** Nain, bright Lilim of
Destiny. Role of a bartender with a personality to pull that
off nicely, friendly and inquisitive. played
by Mysteris
*** Shenmachel, Seraph of the Sword in the role of
Gerhard Reuter, Interpol officer. "apparently a
tall, blond man with light blue, almost grey eyes and a stern facial
expression" and insanely perfect posture. played
by Methariel
*** Rina-el, Mercurian
servitor of Flowers, role of Jasmine. Apparently local to Los Angeles, she has
a very flower personality--warmhearted, demonstrative, forgiving, even
flirtatious. Which drives Seraphim to fits! Describes herself as an "old friend" of Corat's. played
by Sylver
*** Aaronebat, Elohite of
Destiny, role of Aaron Reliford, a traveling
motivational speaker. played by rudeboyscott
Dramatis Personae: Non-Player Characters in order of appearance
http://community.livejournal.com/innominelive/8740.html
*** Pepito, Impudite of
Dark Humor, role of Chris Breckenridge high school goth
kid. Is generally considered small fry in L.A., and rumored to be bound to his
vessel. Put in a homeschooling program for acting up
at school.
*** His mother Mrs. Breckenridge.
*** Corat, Ofan of the
Wind, in the role of John Wyatt, U.S. Federal Air Marshall. Commonly borrows
the body of Alx LeDante,
L.A. area artist, through some kind of friendly arrangement. Wyatt is a
stereotypical Ofan-times-Wind, perpetual motion on
legs and itchy at any sort of confinement. Usually friendly and seemingly
trusting, he can still come off with the occasional salty language or little
white lie. Joined the Big Brothers to get closer to Pepito
and make his life miserable by suggesting the homeschooling
route, among other things.
*** Ryuki Watari, sorcerer
of some renown. Japanese-American occultist/theurge who is rumored to be attempting to summon angels (which is
theoretically impossible). Highly intelligent but with no
clear alliances. He is respected and feared by the community, and rumors
suggest this is in part due to some very crafty deal making. He and Corat clearly know each other; Corat
describes him as a "f**king loan shark".
*** "The Dark Man" aka?
Gavin Russo. Source of much speculation, he has recently come into some
prestige within the occult and/or gothic community. He led the ritual that was
supposed to summon angels, while Ryuki was present.
The relationship between the two men is unclear.
__________________
--A GameMaster is a Balseraph.
Everything he or she says is true, must be true, within the game.
Therefore a GameMaster is a demon. But you knew
that.--
Last edited by tHEhERETIC : Today at 08:46 PM.
Reason: adding some bullet points to be clearer, add to Nain
what is now known, specifying Impudite
10-02-2007, 10:26 AM #77
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
Loose
canon: magick and sorcery
Corporeal Guide pp
69-74--I am (amazed to be) completely on canon. Pgs. 31-32 not so much--I'm a
little "off-book" there. Still if you need to know where I'm drawing
from with Ryuki, there it is.
Above the line, nearly any celestial knows. Below it requires some experience
with sorcery/occult.
Sorcery, from the celestial perspective, is demons loaning power to humans (or
more rarely, a human who's learned to spend his own Essence). Since demons
don't give these things away unless there's a bigger payoff at the end, it's
generally held that the sorcerer has made a deal with a demon. It's generally
assumed that the sorcerer has signed a contract or otherwise negotiated this
deal--straightforward, more or less. The wiser angels--or perhaps those with
infernal experience--appreciate that demons lie and lie well. Initiation
happens.
---------------
The Book of Enoch lays the fault for sorcery on the early Grigori,
but that's a side theory.
The Book of Enoch, however, is one of several tomes considered necessary for
the education of any serious occultist. A number of other tomes both ancient
and modern are also considered necessary, though there are enough dabblers
who've only read New Age fluff that 'educated' and 'occultist' are no longer
synonymous.
The one unifying theory of magick/occult/sorcery
inside both the serious tomes and the fluff is the concept of Will as the
driving force behind magick. One imposes one's Will
on the universe through focus and training. This is the same Will that demons
use, the very same celestial force, selfishness incarnate. It can come from the
sorcerer himself or be borrowed from other sources. It is the opposite of
Perception and unified obedience that drives angels.
This is mortals affecting the Symphony in small but unnatural ways. In theory
such a mortal could spend Essence to power his work, but in practice this would
require an unusual talent. More likely a sorcerer would simply focus Will, with
less dramatic results but less Disturbance. Of course, if a demon were to work
closely with such a mortal, he might also provide him with loose Essence. In
addition any spell of any consequence i.e. with readily perceptible effects
will require Essence and create disturbance. Luck charms are the gateway drug; banishings and summonings are the
hard stuff.
__________________
--A GameMaster is a Balseraph.
Everything he or she says is true, must be true, within the game.
Therefore a GameMaster is a demon. But you knew
that.--
Last edited by tHEhERETIC : Today at 08:43 PM.
Reason: qualifying what is common knowledge, checked against canon, bringing
closer to canon
10-11-2007, 06:36 PM #91
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
House
rule: Possession and link to recap
Sent Peter the
results but couldn't get to a computer at work, so it took me several hours to
clarify a fairly important question.
I've updated the recap--peek or not as you will.
https://www.angelfire.com/ca2/tHEhER...r_Clubrecap.htm
I'm going to an airshow tomorrow night so may or may
not be at the computer until Sunday. Not that folks post much on weekends
anyway.
LOL I'm enjoying the suspense! Go watch "Death Note/Desu
Noto" if you can get it. Great movie(s--it takes
both to tell the story start to finish) and even though I've only seen it once
I find I'm borrowing from it a lot. Or I think I am.
--evil grin--
Clarify again on the question on Possession--I'll set down a house rule, if you
think it works (feedback is good). If the host is unwilling, it's canon. If the
host is willing, you can possess up to a natural night's sleep. However, while
the host's brain gets enough rest, his body does not. He's at a greater risk
for injury if the body's been up and around more than three hours. So you
either possess a couch potato ;) or don't hang around for more than that.
That work?
__________________
--A GameMaster is a Balseraph.
Everything he or she says is true, must be true, within the game.
Therefore a GameMaster is a demon. But you knew
that.--
Last edited by tHEhERETIC :
Today at 08:31 PM.
October 19, 2007, 08:10 PM
#96
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
the Mile Higher Club: house rules
flavor part ?2?
Kiddos--don't
forget to send that Resonance.
(Excuse the 'kiddo'--got Kill Bill on the brain right now.)
Extended metaphor--what Songs sound like
The canon describes Songs and sorcery as creating disturbances in the Symphony,
describes things wrong with celestials as dissonance and discords, and
describes angels in veiled classical terms and demons in not-so-veiled rock 'n'
roll terms. Now, I could simply tell you 'you hear a disturbance' and you'd all
understand, but what fun is that? I'm all about a story, but more than that I'm
an occasional literature teacher. While I don't expect a game summary/post to
approach Byronic style, I do think some style is in order. In a nod back to the
gaminess of it all however, that style needs some consistency. So here's what I
figure, as already hinted at by the interactions with my favorite nisei:
Ignoring the infernal side for a moment, let's start with an orchestra
performance in an indoor venue. G-d is our conductor; He doesn't play an
instrument but nothing works without Him. Each of the Choirs is a set of
instruments in what is clearly a huge orchestra. Seraphim are the stringed
instruments, violins in particular if you understand orchestra culture. The
violins are the anchors of the orchestra, and the first violin is the
instrument by which the rest are tuned. This often creates prima donnas...
Each other choir is a set of instruments. Ofanim are
percussion, Kyrios the woodwinds, Mercurians
the vocal choir. Altogether these create a perpetual beautiful music, perfectly
balanced and perfectly in time.
Did I say perfect? If it were so, there would be no disturbances, no need for
this at all. When an angel uses a Song, particularly on Earth, he plays his
instrument just a shade too loudly. The Ofan hits the
cymbal a tiny bit too hard, standing out when he should be blending in. The
little soprano Mercurian hits the note too sharp and
too clear, no longer part of the ensemble but not quite a soloist.
This metaphor has a flaw. Allowing that demons are a rock 'n' roll band, a
demon Song should be easily distinguishable from an angel's, yet this is not
the case. Maybe a cymbal is a cymbal is a cymbal. Maybe a more apt metaphor for
the demons is a jazz band, where the instruments: trumpet, saxophone, bass fiddle,
snare drum, are more similar to an orchestra's in form if not use. Use however,
is a set of solos more or less taking turns, unified by a backbeat rather than
a baton. Or maybe orchestras in Heaven do use electric guitars and caterwauling
vocals. Maybe I've been listening to too much Joe Satriani...
Thus when Corat (our Ofan
of the Wind) was hitting dissonance, his normally steady drum became a
heart-attack rhythm: fast and erratic. I'll use a heartbeat for his 'singing'
style, because it reflects both his instrument and his basically warm nature.
If you Hear a Song that I describe in violin terms, I'm hinting that it could
be a Seraph, but could as easily be a Balseraph. Or
it could simply be a human or ethereal who strongly identifies with violins...
The game system says IIRC you can't distinguish whose Song it is by the
disturbance it makes, so while I find it artsy to drop hints I'm going to keep
the system just a little bit muddy. Which brings me to sorcerors...
Humans aren't part of the orchestra described above. They're not supposed to
play instruments in the composition, nor even hear the music at all. So someone
who isn't playing an instrument can't hit an intrusive note on an instrument.
So I look at it this way: a human somehow playing a song is that idiot in the
front row humming along with Beethoven's 5th. "Da
da da duuuum!"
If he's a little less clumsy, he's the stagehand in the back who just dropped
his keys--"clink". Maybe she's the lady in the lobby on the cell
phone who doesn't realize you can hear her voice through the door, however
faintly. Maybe she's the idiot who left her phone on and is trying to sit on
the phone to muffle the ringtone. Or maybe, if your
sorceror is clever, he's just the guy coughing in the audience, heard but not
much noticed. An ethereal would be the irritating lady in the middle who
sprayed perfume during the performance, making the people around her sneeze and
whisper complaints. You might hear the hiss of the spray, but you're more
likely to pick up on the after effects.
Ryuki, you might note, was a crackle. Radio
interference, a microphone maladjusted. He's not an instrument, but he's not
necessarily in the seats either. This is me expressing that he's no ordinary
sorceror, but also expressing his youth and Japanese-ness by using an
'instrument' that is modern and electronic. Forgive the stereotype of Japanese
as technophiles, for the moment.
Consider this house rules if you will, but I'm calling it more narrative-flavor
than game-mechanics.
I'll go into the particulars of the wards at a later date, when that
information is known to more of the players. Don't want to give too much away.
Will also do a write-up on Watts in MHC, as my hunch is the story will be going
there quite soon.
Barbara aka tHE hERETIC
__________________
--A GameMaster is a Balseraph.
Everything he or she says is true, must be true, within the game.
Therefore a GameMaster is a demon. But you knew
that.--
Last edited by tHEhERETIC : Today at 08:17 PM.
Reason: Never get it right the first time...
10-21-2007,
06:14 PM
#104
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
MHC settings 1:
churches and cathedrals
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Methariel
Well, I think fast forwarding a month has been
torpedoed by my last post...
I think we can "ff" after that next meeting. :)
Peter
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LOL I don't mind, as long as I can have my Dia
de los Muertos fun. O:)
The following is for our story, but in some (only some) ways reflects reality.
I've taken creative liberties, so don't use this as a tour guide to LA anytime
soon.
There are a handful of churches in the vicinity of LAX of varying degrees of
orthodoxy. The most moderate and most accessible is the Church of the
Visitation off 88th Street,
quite close to the airport. It is led by a friendly Irish pastor from the old
country, and its congregation is a colorful mix that reflects Los
Angeles itself: polyglot, young and old, rich and
poor. The church itself might remind you of a classic Italian style, with
straight wooden pews, open beam high ceiling, and naves and alcoves dedicated
to the various saints and Stations of the Cross. It is modern without being
radical, comfortably traditional.
This is in stark contrast to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Here is a
church that literally has no right angles in its architecture, designed to pull
the mind out of comfort and into jarring contemplation. It is at once stark and
elaborate, simple and extravagant. It is without question controversial. It
sits in the heart of downtown, one wall facing the parking lot that is the
Hollywood Freeway 101. It replaced the much smaller and more traditional St. Vibiana's, damaged in the 1994 earthquake and considered
unsalvageable by the Archdiocese. Narrowly saved from the wrecking ball by the
city of Los Angeles, the
cathedral's exterior was restored but its interior remodeled to accommodate an
arts and entertainment venue (known simply as "Vibiana")
as well as the Little Tokyo branch of the public library.
No, really
10-22-2007,
06:25 PM
#108
tHEhERETIC
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: southern California
MHC
setting 2: Watts
(Posting soon: Dia de las Muertos )
(As with the churches setting, this is a heavily fictionalized account of a
real area. It bears some resemblance to fact, sure, but it’s
more fiction than not.)
Watts.
South Central Los Angeles. The places are legendary, and not in a good way. A few
years ago South Central was redubbed simply South
Los Angeles, which is not quite as absurd as it first seems.
This part of the city, call it what you will, has a long colorful history
entwined with that of gangs. On a local level a gang is named for the area
where its members live, its ‘hood if you will, and changing names deprives
those gangs of some claim. A gang named “19th Street Bloods” wouldn’t be
challenged on 19th street by anyone with half a brain, but change that street
name to Oak Glen and somehow it doesn’t belong to them quite so well, they
can’t rightfully beat you for walking on 19th Street because it's sweet little
Oak Glen. It’s the reason the LA Kings changed their jerseys from black to
purple, because no self-respecting gangster would be caught wearing purple, but
plenty would refer to themselves as Kings. It’s an arms race of symbols, and at
this point the Raiders are losing.
Another important fact of gangs is their peculiar structure. Jerseys
and symbols might represent a national or international organization, but this
organization is usually a loose confederacy. Incarcerated men—as the leaders
usually are—are not in a position to micromanage. The bulk of the gangs is cliques, cells, a handful of people holding down a block
or two under a banner with a loose association to others of the larger gang. Sure,
a Crip in a city half a continent away will find
‘brothers’ in a strange city, but he is at least as likely to find a fellow Crip two blocks away who would happily shoot him for some
slight.
The thing with a neighborhood like this, the neighbors have been through a lot
together. Gang violence, while deadly, tends to be within the gangs.
Interracial murder is surprisingly rare, given that gangs are often divided
along racial lines. So in the end, blue or black, Raiders or Kings, Crips or Bloods, even black or brown don’t mean as much in
this neighborhood as simple suburban neighborly ties.
But history…Watts has traditionally been settled by
working people, first the rancheros, then railroad workers, and later an influx
of African-Americans seeking a city where their color mattered less. Like the
whites before them, many of these Americans worked hard, gathered a little
savings, and moved out to the suburbs. A few hardy souls have stayed, people
whose houses are paid off or who have ties to the community. Those ties are
fierce, but not unbreakable.
In recent years a new type of gang has moved in. Known as the “Mexican Mafia”,
what started out as a virulently racist prison gang moved outside its walls. It has a local branch in Watts
known as Florencia 13 made up primarily of Latin
American immigrants to the area. Neighborly ties prevailed, until the
leadership of the Mexican Mafia declared that they were going to run the black
people out of Watts. At first the locals quietly
refused, but the young locos (crazy-angry people, a common gang moniker)
trying to impress their bosses in prison killed anyone who shied from the
fight. Why do they do it? Because in gang life, doing time is a when,
not an if, and the gang leaders have long
memories. Recently it has become a death sentence for a black man to walk
anywhere in Watts, even the traditionally black parts of
town, even when he clearly has no gang affiliation.
Yes of course there are celestials in gangs.
Welcome to L.A.
The characters