| RP Hooks
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I'm a reasonable guy.
But, I've just experienced some very unreasonable things.
“Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China”
- Bikes: It's more than just a means of transportation, it's a lifestyle - a degree of freedom.
- New In Town: Word has it that he came in from Vegas a few weeks ago.
- Are you from Vegas? Did you run in criminal circles there?
- Businessman: He's got two projects going in town, one downtown and one harbor-side.
- Favors: Dawson is the kind of guy that does favors for people - mostly because not everyone has the cash to pay for his services. These favors can include relocation, new IDs, forcible emancipation, finding someone, getting yourself lost, etc. So if you have a need but don't have the green, don't sweat it. He might (emphasis on might) help you. The favor is commensurate with the fee. What's he charge? That all depends on what you have and what he needs.
- Marker: This is something that he picked up from his old gang leader. If he (or someone in the group) owed someone a favor, he'd give them a token or a marker; a representation of some favor that would be repaid in the future. You can cash them back in whenever you like. They're typically for something small and in return he'll do you a small favor. He'll bail you out of jail (depending on how much the bail is) or arrange a pick up, etc.
- Do you have a token from his old gang Do you want to earn one?
Will you hose me down with holy water - If I get too hot?
Will you take me to places I'll never know?
“Meatloaf - I'd do Anything for Love”
- Pagan: Most people will mistakenly assume that he's a pagan. He's not. He doesn't believe in the old religion of Europe, he doesn't go to local pagan festivals in hand-made robes or dance skyclad around a spring-time, fertility statue. Nope. His believes are much darker. That being said - he's more willing to deal with Pagans than non-pagans.
- He occasionally hangs out / shops at The Witches Brew
- He's even been known to go out of his way to help Pagans who are in a pinch.
- He will often ask those who claim to be pagan if they follow the "Old ways of Blood and Storm of shadow and flame" as sort of a password to see if they're REAL witches/warlocks (sorcerers) or not.
- Drawn to the Darkness: He's always been dawn to the darker, more gritty side of things. It's just who he was. He's not the kind of person that seeks the spotlight, center stage or the attention or adoration of the crowd. Rather, he prefers to hang out in the wings, on the fringe and in the shadows. From his first brush with magic, he was tempted by the things that whisper to him from the darkness - telling him things that fed his curiosity and his need for power and revenge. He's drawn to the darker forms of magic and to those who study and practice it.
- This could be dark witches, the odd satanist, etc.
- Faces in the Flames: Fire is one of his principle, magical tools. Should he be summoning a spirit or casting a curse, fire will be involved in one form or another. In addition, he goes through a portion of ingredients and materials that he has to acquire through sometimes more unconventional means.
- Do you have connections to find the rare and unusual? Maybe he can work with you.
- Aint his first Boneyard: Aside from fire, the next most prominent material of his spells is bones - typically the human variety. This means that he might be found out at some of the old cemeteries that have been conventionally forgotten. They tend to be easier for making withdrawals.
- Are you the kind to dig up a grave under the dark of a moon?
- Find a Castle: The saying goes that a man's home is his castle. Well, one of Dawson's goals is to finally settle down somewhere so that he can have such a place. Somewhere that he can call his own and can do whatever he wants in it. In this town it'll probably be his garage.
- Styx and Stones: This has been and probably always will be a front for criminal deals downtown. Rough, seedy and not all that to look at, he's throwing a coat of paint here and there, some new, steel doors and a better kitchen so he has at least a descent place to catch a meal while he's working. As for the loaded fries, one of Tommy's specialties.
- New Era Garage: This was one of the stranger acquisitions but probably connected to his love of motorcycles. Located harbor-side, the old lot doesn't have much going for it. A run down garage, a tree-enclosed scrap yard out back - so what does he see in it? One word: potential.
- Find a Crew: You can't watch your own back for long - at least not well, so he needs to find people who are willing to watch his back if he watches theirs. It could be three people working at the shop or a dozen who ride with him around the city as he tries to steak out a claim - either way he's tired of fighting this war on his own.
- Harbingers: He's slowly starting to rebuild the old gang that he was a member of. The group is still relatively new, but the colors are out there and they're moving as a group. The first territory that they grabbed was the New Era Garage as their base.
- Find the Cash: All the wants in the world don't mean squat if you ain't got the cash to make them happen. He's put almost all of his money into the garage and that's a start but he knows that he'll need to find some way to get the money he needs to live life a bit more comfortably.
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| Contacts & Allies
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From The Crypt
- Belinda: Can't believe I got a selfie with you.
- Carver: Seriously weird situation but if it works for you bud - go for it.
- Maxwell Fairbairn: Nice...um...collar.
From Other Places
- Mikaela: Opposite as night and day but she's great to have to bounce ideas off of. I don't know what she got out of it, but our conversation about poker -seriously- opened my eyes.
- Elijah: Well that was an interesting connection. We should meet for waffles more often.
- Nyx: Kinda Creepy but at least she's honest about my chances.
- River: Her advice was a bit - on point. But burning everything to the ground and salting the earth would be a bit too...public.
- Anyu: Never thought I'd see you out of that shop.
- Blodskadi Ulwin: I'm 99% certain that you're seeing things others can't. Let me know if I got one of those things on me.
- Levi Cooper: New Bouncer at the Styx and a good friend. Met him on the beach a while back - helped him out with a bit of trouble.
- Bobbi: Trouble on three legs.
- Emrick: Handy little helper. What that guy can do with a can of caulk and a screwdriver is amazing.
- Kim: Reminds me of a lot of my friends. Not sure if that's a good thing for her or not. Hopefully she'll live long enough for me to find out.
- Elijah: Cool guy. We got history. He comes by the bar every once in a while. Helped me out when I got shot up bad.
- Efrem: Cool Ink. Nice smile. Probably dangerous.
- Devon: Fresh Meat at the Styx
- Ken: Well, that got my attention.
- Izayah: Definitely someone that I'll have to keep my eye on if I want to hold onto the Styx.
- Alice: Love the ink.
- Alicia Kane: Well aren't you a bag full of tricks. Never playing pool with you again. Can't really call her Fresh Meat because she's not working for the Styx. She sorta walked in and reminded me of a sister - or that cousin that shows up every once in a while and eats your food and smokes your stash. What can I say - I got a soft spot for broken and forgotten things.
- Hardy: Another one of the Broken and Forgotten has wandered into my door and in need of help. This one seems a bit...uh...'special' so I am trying to get him set so he won't be such an easy mark. He's ripped enough I don't think people would mess with him but he came in a few times with only the clothes on his back, unwashed and no cash. Took almost nothing to get him ready - and now I think I hired a bodyguard for the Styx. heh.
- Sumter: This guy blew my fuckin mind.
- Shane: Good worker. He'll probably finish his meat week in style.
- Aran: Interesting guy - totally not what I was expecting.
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| Streetwise
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- Streetwise (1):
- White-haired biker, fairly new in town, In from Vegas.
- He bought the old pool hall, Styx and Stones and is giving it a face-lift.
- Streetwise (2):
- He's also a mechanic that and is working to open the New Era Garage and Salvage Yard in the working class/industrial part of town.
- The old garage and scrapyard is locked up tight with barbed wire fences and tall gates, but he's doing something there. Parties maybe.
- His place employs a few people with a criminal history. He claims that he’s trying to help them get back on their feet, but he could just be building a new crew.
- Streetwise (3):
- He was a Hitter for some of the small families / organizations in Vegas.
- He used to be a member of a small gang called the "Harbingers" that ran between Texas, Arizona, New Mexico.
- The Harbingers were into some of the spooky stuff but it probably was just to keep people scared.
- Streetwise (4):
 Colors of the Motorcycle Club - His old gang, the Harbingers, may have claimed the New Era Garage.
- Heard he did also pulled a nickle back in South Carolina for aggravated assault.
- Streetwise (5):
- He shanked a few people when he was in prison - both men died of stab wounds after attempting to jump him in the shower. They were the wrong people and he had friends that could make it go away. Charges were never pressed and he got out, eventually, on his original charges - aggravated assault.
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| Magic
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Magic, the darkest magic.
My soul swims in it...
“David Lo Pan, Big Trouble in Little China”
- Blue-Collar Warlock: His materials are inexpensive, commonly available and generally what’s on-hand. His magic is fairly straightforward, working-class and without many frills. Summoning spirits and calling hellfire to your hands is great but it doesn’t keep gas in your bike. So he had to find something to pull in cash. He’s the guy who would spend his evenings pouring over Chinese take out while piecing together a carburetor set out on a table before heading out for a midnight hookup or a late night conversation with the thing that lives in the fire. He’s usually trying to find some way to get a payday to keep the wolves at the door.
- Dangerous Books: Books aren’t generally considered dangerous. However, those books that teach how one could build a bomb should probably be restricted from those angst-ridden teenaged eyes that might want to blow up a school. More importantly, books shouldn’t teach a curious teen how to achieve the same effect without needing the bomb at all. All it took was some candles, a bit of chalk, some wine and a three drops of blood and his life changed forever.
- Talks to Fire: Some wizards can talk to snakes. Others have whole conversations with their familiars and things over afternoon tea. Daws, however, talks to fire. Or rather, he talks to whatever lives within the fire. He’s not quite sure what it is but the first ritual he performed was how to create a ‘sacred flame’. He did and, like the ritual explained, the fire turned green. Uncertain if it was the odd combination of materials that might have chemically altered the fire he decided to ask it a question, just like the ritual said he could. It answered.
Magic is compelling a bonfire to answer.
Magic is calling a mountain to awake.
Magic is commanding a thunderstorm to strike.
It is drawing upon the power of the ancients in your words and gestures. It is in runes carved in bone to break down walls and doors scrawled in blood to seal them - forever. I'm talking about magic that is as old as time - magic that moved stones to measure the sun and honor the moon. Magic that let man walk on four legs by wearing the skin of a wolf. Magic that would connect one end of the world to the other through the smoke of council fires that died out long ago.
The world has forgotten the Old Ways - the blood magic of the old crones, the spirit talking of the shamen and the weather witching of the storm-singers. The world says fire does not speak. The world says thunderstorms don't just show up when you want it and mountains don't move for men. Well...the world is fucking -wrong-!
The path to the Old Ones power isn't gone. You have feel it down in your bones. You gotta stand at the top of a tower during a thunderstorm and tell it "I own you"...and mean it.
The trail is broken and for those who walk it - they spend their lives trying to find pieces to a puzzle scattered to the winds two thousand years ago. The path means piecing together the broken remains in old motels with prostitutes, bar basements with bouncers, abandoned buildings with alcoholics, and crazy old ladies at the laundry. It ain't pretty but it'll get you there. Magic has a price.
Power is still out there for some if they're willing to break the rules of the world. Don't let anyone else sugarcoat it for you. What would you give to turn your world around?
- Untrained: A lot of what he's learned has been self taught, discovered in the loose pages of his old gang leader's notes or from the 'Fire that Speaks'; his guide. That being said, he has learned a thing or two from other sorcerers (witches / warlocks) along the way. He's been a bit stand offish with some of the Mystical societies that he's heard of mostly because of his dealings with spirits has left their mark upon him and people tend to get weirded out by his otherworldlyness.
- Traditionally Untraditional: When around the truly awakened, his magic seems to lend him towards one of three very different traditions: The Dreamspeakers, the Verbena and more recently the Hollow Ones
- Dreamspeakers: for his affinity towards spirits - though he doesn't possess their cultural roots nor does he come off as the do-gooder that they seem to commonly be seen as.
- Verbena : for his old world approach to magic - though he shares no affinity for life, more of the opposite. His foci, however, are straight-up, old school witch. Fire, blood, bones, sex and circles should put him squarely within their sights.
- Hollow Ones : He does cobble together whatever seems to work for him in a mishmash of styles and foci, but he's less poetic and blaze about life and more angry.
Eventually he found a teacher within the Dreamspeakers who helped him figure things out though he still has close ties to with the Verbena and Hollow Ones he met while trying to understand his path within magic.
- Dances in the Shadows: Fire seems to draw out a hidden face from him. By the flickering light of fires that drive back the night so that he can dance in that middle ground between the two; between light and darkness. Morally he's sort of straddling the grey-ish areas of good and evil. He's not out to butcher the world but some people just need killin - and he doesn't lose any sleep about it.
- Grimoires: Not everyone can have a library stacked with ancient tomes but not every secret needs to be bound in goat skin. Composition journals and spiral notebooks are more his speed. Most of the occult stuff out in the world is absolute crap worthless but but he’s started collecting those few things that seem to work. His books of rituals look like a gothling took a class in scrapbooking; full of pages torn from books, handwritten scrawl, diagrams in marker, cheap photocopies, etc.
- Sanctum: His dabblings with magic hasn’t gotten him incredible amounts of money but he’s well on his way. Without a house or a place that he could claim as his own, he’s had to make accommodations. He’s created a small altar in an old basement of a forgotten building in a neighborhood that’s been erased from memory. The altar was made from wooden shipping crates, a dirty, red blanket as a cloth, candles and a black-handled knife he uses for some of his ritual work. Everything can fit in a gym bag and he can move the boxes back in place when needed.
- Got Friends On the Other Side: He's a summoner of spirits - typically not the ones found in nature - unless you count the elemental forces. He calls upon servants of darkness, flame, the occasional ghost and such but he's also been known to summon a spirit of healing should a member of his crew need a quick patch.
I still dream of that night.
Not of the sorcerer, not of his blade...I dream of the voice.
Was it a god? A demon? Some conjurer's trick?
I don't know but the sorcerer called, and a voice answered
“Varys, Game of Thrones”
- Fire: is at the heart of nearly everything he does, magically. It was through fire that he made his first contact with a spirit and by that initial bargain he has learned more and more ways to strike out at the people and things that piss him off.
- Candles: Those times when he can’t use a bonfire to add to his magic he uses candles as small points of fire set around the circles he uses to focus his power.
- Fire Pit: A few scraps of wood from an old shipping pallet, is usually enough to pull together enough fire for his average magical working - the stuff that’s more brute force than fine and precise work.
- Bonfires: This is for the BIG magic; the stuff where he’s calling up spirits, offering sacrifices and looking to make deals.
- Bones: As a physical manifestation of death, he uses bones (skulls, knuckles, femura, etc.). Skulls are his favorite focus, vertebrae are good to hold candles and femora are great for wands and to twin around for a magical circle.
- Blood: Sacrifice is important - but usually only for the big stuff. Sometimes it’s his and sometimes it’s from someone else.
- Sex: Sex can make you feel powerful - feel alive. And if it doesn’t then you need to find someone else to do it with. Sometimes it’s about using it to help get what you want - sometimes it’s the only thing you want. But the sex he uses isn’t what most would call compassionate; it’s fuel. So he usually has to find someone who will stick around because they’re being paid - or want something from him.
- Drugs: Everything from a 40 ounce to a bit of heroine can alter your personal reality - even if only for a moment or two. Ancient man has been using mind-altering things to glimpse the other world so it’s just a matter of taste. He doesn’t use these often, not for his magic, because he doesn’t like the feeling of being out of control. It leaves him weak for too long.
- The Moon: The moon is very important as it's what dictates what forces are flowing in the world. Under the full moon, the night is illuminated and thus the darkness is lessened. It's a night for summoning things to gain knowledge, to reveal secrets and such. Things done under the New Moon, when there's almost no light and the darkness is at its height, is for summoning things that are secretive, powerful and dangerous.
- Circles and Symbols: Sometimes drawn in chalk, or dug into the ground and filled with gasoline (as a combination with fire) or possibly even laid out with bone, the simple power of a circle can help focus one's energies. Combine the circle with specific symbols (triangles, pentagrams, etc.) at various points around or within the circle to help enclose, protect or forbid certain spirits.
- Writing and Inscription: He has more than a few notebooks filled with his work but he's also a big fan of enchanted skin art. Infusing tattoos with the power to increase your speed, stamina or strength? He uses the old school tap-tap with a needle and a ball point pen; prison tat style.
Name: Summoning Circle
Path: Enchanting
Level: 1
Effect: -1 to occult difficulties for the purpose of sum/bind/ward.
Concept: A permanent magical circle used to aid in summoning rituals.
Notes: Effect could be -2 if made for specific targets (spirits, Ghosts, etc.)
Desc: A circle of various materials, several feet across set into the floor or ground.
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| History
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- Tried and Failed: Dawson was a failure in nearly everything he tried. He barely made it through high school. Not because of grades but because he had a short temper and plenty of ways people could pick on him. He was too poor to be popular, too angry to play sports and to secretive to let anyone get too close.
- Anger Management: He was dismissed from the Marines before he finished boot camp. A drill instructor just had to push the wrong button with him and during the first day he was taken into custody for aggravated assault. The Corps held him in the brig for six months until they held a court martial where they threw him out.
- He’s got a Record: That very night, when he was enjoying a taste of freedom and cooling his heels in a bar off base to figure out his next move, some one recognized him as the guy that beat up their buddy. The bar was used to fights but since it was owned, operated and patronized by so many Marines, he was picked up again for basically the same charge but this time he was thrown in jail for two years. While he was in he made his bones with a few shanks, scored a few connections with people that wanted someone hurt or protected and made a few “friends” and no one seemed to care.
- Street Time: After he got out of jail he decided not to go home - wherever that was. So he decided to slum his way around between west Texas and southern California. Having a felony arrest record meant that he wasn’t going to find a normal job and that was ok for him. He’d move some drugs here and there - beat someone up if the money was right or keep someone from getting their asses kicked if the sex was better.
- Biker Biker Burning Bright: During his travels he was picked up by a biker gang out of New Mexico. Some connections he had made when he was in jail actually turned out to be handy on the outside. They moved drugs, weapons, sometimes people - anything to make money.
- Bikers go Boom: The gang ultimately consumed itself with bitter rivalry between the members and jealousy of the leader keeping the power locked up for himself. Daws actually arranged the blow up - turning people against each other and the leader as a distraction so that he could grab the money and, more importantly, the books and get out.
- On the Road: After the destruction of the gang, he was on his own. Though technically still a member, he didn’t really feel that he owed them anything. He took what he felt he was due and headed into southern California.
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| Rumors
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These are rumors that might or not be true about Dawson.
While in Vegas he:
- Contractor: He was a somewhat known contractor of the Vegas syndicate It was one of his more infamous jobs back in Vegas. The target was basically hiding in a fortified, roof-top condo in one of the high rises around the city. The contract was offered, taken and before the next dawn the man was found in his hot tub with both of his wrists slit from palm to elbow - seemingly self-inflicted. Unconventional services were the biker's hallmark. He could get intel no one else seemed capable of finding, get to targets no one else could even reach. He was a prize held -very- tightly by the family that kept using him.
- Club Fixer: Used to help the smaller night clubs and bars expand their operations, fix their problems, upgrade their clients, etc.
- Collector: Used to collect from the dealers - keeping them in product and made sure they paid their dues to the right people.
While in Tuscon he:
- Stripper: Used to strip at a club called Woodys. His Magic Mike dance was said to be one of the club's most requested show.
- Bar Tender: Used to tend bar at a dive called the "Meet Rack". It was mostly a college bar but he was there for nearly a year.
While in El Paso he:
- Hitter: Used to be muscle for a moderately influential family. No one seems to know the name of the family but more than a few holes were dug out in the desert outside of town because of his work.
- Mechanic: Used to fix motorcycles at a shop called Ace's Bike Shop. He wasn't bad but he didn't like taking his orders from someone that didn't know one end of a wrench from the other.
- Gang Member: Used to ride with a club called the Harbingers, they were an offshoot of a larger, older club (some say the Mongols, others that it was Hell's Angels) with a more prominent occult theme to their operations.
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| Disclaimer
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- Disclaimer: Yes, this character is dark. He's a gang-banging criminal that sacrifices things to whatever it is that talks to him from the fire. This doesn't mean that he's a bad guy, necessarily.
- Drug / Gang ties: Dawson has ties to a motorcycle gang out of West Texas; The Harbringers. They moved drugs, weapons and the occasional human cargo but ultimately blew themselves up due to the pride and greed of their leader. Dawson was right along side them for most of this. He drank it, smoked it, tagged it and shot anyone that tried to stop him. But he's really not a bad guy.
- Minor-League Infernalist: He's made deals, he's talked to things and made sacrifices for their power. But again, it doesn't make him a bad guy. :)
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| Soundtrack
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Highway to Hell - ACDC
Living easy, living free
Season ticket on a one-way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
I'm Only Human - Rag'n'Bone Man
Take a look in the mirror
And what do you see
Do you see it clearer
Or are you deceived
In what you believe
Pony - Genuine
This is a forbidden song and will never be played at the Styx.
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| Stereotypes
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If I Were A...
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Sidhe. Due to their nobility, sense of purpose. He's a leader - it's almost as natural to him as breathing. His curiosity and hunger for power makes him a political beast - ready to claw his way through the thorn-choked forests of the Dreaming.
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Natural Leaders and deal makers. Right up his alley.
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Verbena for their old world approach to magic, Dreamspeakers for their dealings with spirits.
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Power is most important of all of these, and there is no room in the Shadow Lords for showing weakness or mercy to an opponent, be it a battle of wits or of blades.
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His street-level approach to business, his attention to family (adopted), his temper, and his difficulty with bending the knee to someone just because someone said that he has to.
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The Mostly Mortal
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Stay outta my head and I won't have to lock you in the basement.
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And I thought -I- had a drinking problem.
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They usually get in my way, piss me off, or generally annoy me. But occasionally I can be surprised.
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I got spells. You got spells. Let's trade.
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The Others
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You're cute.
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Have soul(s) willing to trade for power. Call me.
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A totally messed up bunch of unfocused, uncoordinated, drama-magnets with delusions of their own importance - of which I may show some similarities.
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Could be interesting - I guess. If I could just get past all of the fangs, claws and that murderous rage.
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I think I met one once. Not sure.
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Their addition to blood could interesting. Their knowledge could be handy. Their revenge - I'd rather skip.
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