~~NOTOC~~ ====== David Klein ====== //Player: [[players:jason|Jason]]// **David Klein** was born September 11th, 1975, and grew up in Springfield. In the 1970s and 80s, Springfield was stratified by ethnic lines and ghettos, and David fell in with the German-American enclave of the area, which was centered close to the similarly-ailing Greek community. He joined a gang as soon as he could in the late 80s, but back then it was mostly white gangs versus black gangs. As time went on, the Hispanics moved in and drugs exploded, although David's gang spurned them and looked down on thugs who used. For most of the 1990s David worked odd jobs under the table and ran with his gang, doing mostly larceny and petty burglary, but after several close calls with the law he started considering other options. He started putting feelers out on joining the Army, figuring that was the only way out of the blight of Springfield. Everything changed at 8:46 AM on September 11th, 2001. Al-Qaeda attacked and the World Trade Center towers collapsed. Incensed that Muslim fanatics would attack his country (and ruin his birthday) David robbed a Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant in Springfield a few weeks after the attacks, looking to "get back at some Afghan Muslims." He was caught and arrested – and learned that his targets were Afghani but weren't Muslim; they'd fled Afghanistan years ago because of religious persecution. Realizing his mistake, David accepted a plea-bargain deal to join the military instead of jail time; luckily no one was injured in the burglary and the Afghani family didn't press charges. David joined the U.S. Army in late 2001 and was shipped off to Afghanistan as soon as he was out of boot camp. He spent the next four years in and out of Afghanistan, mostly in logistical support and traffic duty, but participated in a few raids. During his time there, David caught sight of a strange ritual with supernatural connotations, but tried to write it off as a hallucination from poppy fumes. Unfortunately, whatever he saw changed him, and he saw hints of the dead everywhere after it. David returned to the United States in late 2005 and floundered a bit before using his veteran status and the GI Bill to attend Springfield Technical Community College. He found he was decent at math and focused his attentions there. One of David's friends suggested he volunteer for substitute teaching, which David initially rejected but changed his mind as no other jobs were forthcoming. Much to his surprise, David discovered he truly enjoyed substitute teaching, and took as many jobs as he could while finishing his associate's degree. He mentored several inner-city kids and tried to steer them away from the gangs, using his own experiences as examples. He got a lucky break in the 2008 academic year; a Central High School teacher took long-term disability for an illness and never returned, so David was offered her classes for the rest of the year. He accepted and started in February 2009. There he met [[wod:characters:fernando|Fernando]], one of his students who was also trying to get out of the gang life. David took a personal responsibility for Fernando, and mentored him for the rest of the year. He pulled some strings and encouraged Fernando to apply to STCC; Fernando was accepted and graduated Central in 2009. His grades weren't great, but college was a start. Unfortunately Fernando couldn't shake the gang he used to be affiliated with; it was a "high school" Latino gang that was pressuring him to steal electronics and fuzz-busters from his job at Best Buy. ==== Death, Bargain and Aftermath ==== Things came to a head on **Sunday, July 4th, 2009**. David learned that the leader of the gang – a dropout named [[wod:characters:luis|Luis]] – would be hanging out at the gang's headquarters, an open-bay car wash called Kleen Kars on State Street, a few blocks from Central High. He headed down there, and spotted Luis and two other "baby gangers" lounging in one of the bays; Kleen Kars has four bays but only three of them work properly. The fourth one is where the gang holds court. The three baby-gangers were working on a restored 1970s Impala muscle car, and Luis greeted David with, "What up?" David told Luis to leave Fernando alone and tried to impress them with his veteran status and the weird shit he experienced in Afghanistan, which would, "shrivel your balls – if you had any." David turned away as Luis boggled, and then the baby ganger snapped something and David turned back. Luis then drove a switchblade into David's chest, puncturing his left lung! Bright red blood sprayed everywhere and poured out of David's mouth as he collapsed to the sniggers of the three baby gangers. The frantic thumping of his heart filled David's ears as he died, but the thumping suddenly stopped as a voice that's a strange medley of grinding rocks, Afghani Pashto, and a New York accent offered a bargain to bring David back. David agreed as he wanted "to kick that guy's ass," and [[wod:characters:discarded]] merged with David. David's eyes opened to see one of the baby gangers leering over him; the boy's leer turned to horror as David stood up and pulled out a gun, his chest wound weeping white plasm! He tried to say something, but bloody drool and plasm leaked out of his mouth. Regardless, the boy who first saw David get up defecated in terror and curled up in a catatonic fugue while the other turned and fled with slightly more rectal dignity, although he screamed prayers to the Blessed Virgin. Luis saw the plasm and David's gun and backed up swiftly, his hands in the air, although he was still holding the bloody switchblade. As soon as Luis reached the edge of the bay, he turned and fled. David limped back to his car and drove off, leaving the bloody stain of his near-death behind. He had no idea what he just agreed to, but every time he takes a breath it feels like stone grinding together in his lungs... ===== Geist ===== //see [[wod:characters:discarded]]// ==== Keystone Memento ==== David's Keystone memento is a bloody hatchet. ==== Krewe ==== David is a member of [[wod:characters:groups:xkrewe]]. ===== Description ===== David is a 5'10" Caucasian man in his early thirties with dark brown hair who is clearly ex-military. ===== Appears/Mentioned In ===== ==== Dark Academia ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:mortals:recap}} ----- ==== Werewolf: Reconstruction ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:werewolf:recap}} ----- ==== Changeling: Tory ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:werewolf:recap}} ----- ==== Geist: Buried Secrets ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:geist:recap}} ----- ==== Mage: Death In the Dunes ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:mage:recap}} ----- ==== Hunter: Repercussions ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:hunter:recap}} ----- ==== Vampire: Wagers of Blood ==== {{backlinks>.#wod:vampire:recap}} //Most sections of this page were originally published on [[https://nwod-verbena76.livejournal.com/3830.html|Livejournal]].//