Straza

I'm at a loss for words

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“Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse” originates from a novel written by Willard Motley titled Knock on any door. This saying has been repeated and rearranged in the past 6 decades referring to a feeling of throwing caution to the wind, doing what you want or are presented with at the drop of a dime as tomorrow might not come and we will have lived a life of “what if I had just”. This is the Motto of Damien Hillside, the scrappy adrenaline junkie from Auckland, New Zealand. Those who have met Damien through his dealings in Los Santos would call him things such as "Smart" or "Charming" or "A dead motherfucker if I ever see him again" but how did we get here exactly? Damien grew up being scared of his own shadow, too afraid to jump off an elevated platform. A wimp in his peers eyes and the polar opposite of what would become of him. When Damien was 14 his father tragically passed away, the one vivid memory he holds of this event is his father talking about how he wished he had done more with his life. How he spent too much time working, caring about what others thought about him and that if he had just lived a little more, then he could leave this world with contempt. These words struck Damien to his core, and was determined to not end up living a dull and dreary life out of fear of repeating the mistakes he saw his father make. No matter what it was he was going to live life in the fast lane. Rags to Riches Damien would later run away from his now estranged family at age 16 shortly after his mother Anna remarried to a man named Michael Madine, abandoning his little brother Adrian without ever meeting his now step-sister Urban. Damien took to a life of being a gutterpunk who couch surfed from place to place, breaking into cars to get by so that he didn't starve he found he really enjoyed the rush of doing something He wasn't meant to, Damien had just begun his streak of rebellion. It was through these nights of debauchery that Damien found himself pick locking the car of Marcus "Shibuya" Mayven, a local legend meant to be worth a fortune from dealings in stocks and art auctions he could best be described as "batshit fucking crazy" the most popular and well known instance of this was when Marcus flew to africa to trophy kill the elephant his ex wife sponsored just for the hell of it. So once His bodyguards apprehended Damien, instead of simply turning him into the police or making him disappear he made him an offer he couldn't refuse. "Listen, you can continue to do this small league shit while living like a rat or you work with me and live like a king. Lets not pretend this is a hard decision for you to make" The premise was, Marcus Mayven had made a lot of enemies in his time, people he had screwed over, people who had screwed him over or people he just didn't like. So He decided to get Damien involved in his antics, he would have a team working with Damien whilst he broke into these peoples homes and try get away with their very fancy shmancy supercars, which would then have all plates removed and serial numbers filed off and be shipped across the world. This was the highlight of his life, chasing the thrills he wanted, being nearly close to a millionaire at 21 years old, and a pseudo father figure as a boss in the midst of it. Fall From Grace Along the way, Damien had let his guard down and fallen for a girl named Natalia. She was perfect for him , beautiful, slightly arrogant, bashful and emotionally unavailable. Toxic and full of red flags no doubt but they enjoyed each others company and kept their egos at bay. Natalia had a habit of always bringing up her ex boyfriend at any occasion she could, sometimes it'd be just ranting about him and other times it would be concern that he was going to come after her. So after a while Damien stopped pretending to listen to her about it and chose to send a message to him. He was going to steal his prized possession car.... This was all rudimentary at this point and he was feeling cocky, he had his people on the outside cutting any security systems, making sure he can get in and out. He broke into the car and began his magic "red wire blue wire blah blah blah" he used to say to himself. Suddenly, as he was pulling out of the driveway three bikes pulled up to him waving guns in his face as he sped off onto the highway, ducking into an alley out of the line of sight of his attackers. Confused he starts looking around the car for any clue what was going on, in the glovebox he found a pistol and a leftover vest patch that he recognized. He had just stolen from the command of a notorious gang and he knew how fucked he was. After hours of avoiding people hunting him down, Damien made it to Marcus's dockside warehouse where they devised a plan to get him to safety. the next morning he sat in the backseat of the car as it was lowered into a shipping container, He didn't know where he was going but Marcus told him that "I've got people to get you in there but after that you're on your own" and he knew that wherever it was, he would be determined to make a name for himself and get back to the position he used to sit at. A label is placed on the shipping container as its nailed shut "SHIPMENT TO: Los Santos"

Looks great guys! had nothing but good interactions with you all so far

“I’m tired of feeling restrained...I want to go see what's out there for me in the city” Damien had spent 5 months in the city and had spent no short time making a name for himself, quickly rising through the ranks to a command position in the Vigilante organization Salvation. People knew him as reliable and trustworthy, you could go to him to get something fixed. But despite his rank and the family he had bonded with, It wasn’t enough. Damien sat across alongside his good friends Marcus Falcone and Joshua Braithwaite and his own sister Urban when they broke the news that all they would be leaving Salvation in pursuit of a faster paced lifestyle, while they appreciated everyone there they all felt downtrodden and held back from what they really excelled at, criminal activity. “Damien c’mere! There’s someone I want you to meet!” The recognizable voice of an old friend cut through the rabble of the pier as Damien drove in on his bike, the man led Damien over to a figure with blonde hair and a black mask as his friend made the two acquainted. “Johnny, this is my good friend Damien...Give him some work, trust me hes a really fucking good guy” it hadn’t been an hour since he departed from his old org and Damien was already turning heads, the two talked and exchanged numbers and with that Damien would take the first steps into his new life. “I have one question to ask you, and I’m going to ask it twice…” Over the course of the next week, Damien would be taking every waking moment to get in on any and all operations that were offered to him, from hitting stores, Braddocks or helping with drops to things mundane such as watching cars for them. He needed to get his name out there to each and every one of the men and women he hoped to one day call his family. He needed to prove to all of them including himself that he was worthy of joining their ranks. Till one day, he found himself at the point of no return, as Harley looked over to him and asked “are you willing to give up everything, including your life just for the OPPORTUNITY to join the Rooks?” He knew that there was no going back, he would either leave there a member of the family or another failed stain on the side of the reservoir that hung below them. With an astounding 9-1 vote count at the end, Damien had obviously caught the attention of his new family and knew that under the Rooks he would go on to do great things. Much like a bird leaving the nest Damien had just begun spreading his wings.

Good luck boys! can't wait to see what this brings

Nothing but good RP interactions with you guys so far, Look forward to seeing what you guys do with this!

Keeping The Flame Lit of A Torch Since Passed On Damien had found himself the Head of Recruitment and in charge of keeping tabs on everyone underneath him, ensuring a smooth sailing whenever he was covering for High Command. This is a lot more responsibility than he had ever thought to have, for the longest time he felt like he was drowning. From interview to meetings to catching up with everyone and sorting out any issues that may have popped up, he found himself slowly being drained. Whilst he loved his new found comrades and a sense of responsibility it quickly became a heavy bearing burden for him. He wouldn’t realize it until the return of someone very close and special to him, but he had changed. He had become more jaded and stressed out in the month since they last spoke, as he was recounting her with all the events and ongoing plans of Salvation she turned to him and very bluntly said “Well don’t you sound like just the perfect little soldier, what happened to you stop talking like that” He was confused at first but she was right, he sounded jaded, robotic, desensitized and out of touch with who he really was for the sake of getting the organization in a better spot. He thought back to his good friend Talisman, who he had taken over the position from. “Is this the kind of stuff he had to deal with? How was he able to do it whilst still being relaxed and himself? Am I even capable of that?” The thoughts raced through his mind for days while he tried to get a grip on himself again. A lot of people were banking on him pulling through and not fucking this up, And he wasn’t about to dissapoint. “Pressure makes diamonds but it also bursts pipes, which one am I going to be?” He didn’t have an answer to his own question, but one thing he did know was that he needed to find the balance of fulfilling his duties whilst being true to himself for the sake of the family.

Leadership “How deep is your faith in this organization, Damien?” Chase asked point blank, The question confused him at first. Was it a test of his resolve or his trust? Damien thought about it for a second before replying bluntly “There were many times I could have walked away, I could have explored different avenues and avoided a lot of tragedy in doing so. Hell I could even have left the city if I wanted to, but I’m still here aren’t I?” His high command went silent for a few seconds before responding to his answer, Damien not sure himself if he had said what they wanted to hear. “Well listen, we know you’re a quick learner. And you remember how when I met you I said I keep notes on all of our members? Well with what we’re about to say you’re gonna have to learn a shitload quicker” said Chase, not breaking eye contact for a split second before putting his hand on Damiens shoulder. “If you would accept it, we want to promote you to Captain and make you head of recruitment. You have the skillset and the personality to do it, but you’re gonna have a lot on your plate” This much was true, Salvation had gained 16 new recruits in a matter of 24 hours the momentum was blinding. This would make Damien responsible for these recruits, their training and marking their task progression. A huge responsibility for one person let alone one who has worked under people all his career, he began to wonder what they saw in him that made him suitable for such a role. Nevertheless he trusted his high command with his life so he wasn’t about to start doubting their judgement call about him. He had already been there for the recruitment of 6 new members, now receiving a text from the 7th that day to go meet at the observatory. On the drive there it began to settle in how much he was going to have to learn and improve on if this was going to work. He had gone from standing nervously in front of a recruiter 6 weeks prior to being in command. Given these were the craziest 6 weeks of his life and the amount of events both good and bad had hardened him into something greater than he once was, he couldn’t help but still feel over his head. Today had been a whiplash of events from start to finish. On the drive back from a successful interview, he asked Jackie what she thinks. Jackie turns to him and asks with a serious tone “Are you ready for this? Are you ready to BE command?” He knew he had to be, Damien was no stranger to taking risks both good and stupid. If he hesitated now then he would never be ready. He realized it all rested upon him now and he wasn’t going to fuck this up.

One Month It had been just over a month since Damiens life changed for the better, ever since he knocked out some scrappy girl on the pier who ended up getting him in front of high command of an organization that he was being scouted for. Little did he know these people he was trying to win over would eventually become his family, the people he is closest to and would go to hell and back for. A lot has happened in that time, a lot of highs and lows. From Damien working till his hands bled to help secure a million dollar deal as a recruit to being promoted all the way up to specialist, having his say in business matters and meetings. Interviewing people who were once in his position looking for someone to take them in. Damien has worked himself half to death for the sake of his family and risen through the ranks at an incredible pace, So why didn’t he see it that way? There are a lot of words that could be used to describe him, if you asked him he might say “Smart, charming, sexy, Amazing all around really” while others might see him as “Arrogant, hot headed, cocky, undeserving” But one thing that is for certain is that behind it all he is a perfectionist to a fault. If Damien doesn’t do something 100% perfectly he will be his harshest critic. Ever since the [INCIDENT] at [LOCATION] he has been struggling with this mindset. He was sure that he had either sunk the organization or was about to get dismissed. Despite High Command telling him that it wasn’t his fault he still felt burdened by the responsibility he needlessly took upon himself. This kept eating at him for a while and began to make him feel distant from his family, he doesn’t want to make his problems everyone else's as they have enough to deal with. He began to fall into an abysmal state of trauma, feeling the shrapnel pierce through his skin, the fire spreading onto the walls as Charlie desperately tried to get him up. “Leave me, get out of here let me die” he muttered before passing out in the haze of chaos, waking up in the back of a cruiser vomiting up his own blood. He began to doubt his own abilities, what had he really done? Helped pull off deals that benefitted the family and greater good? Support his family and comrades? Be the voice of reason when egos begin to boil over? Help track down and eventually find Jackie in the back of a car during her kidnapping? None of it was enough for him, he felt as if he didn’t provide ENOUGH for the organization. That’s when it struck him, he has only been in the city for over a month. One month isn’t a lot of time when you stop to think about it, even less for experience in his line of work. In one month he has done all of this plus more, He realized that he needed to stop comparing his one month of experience to his peers months or even years of experience they had over him. “Jackie, I want you to give your brutally honest opinion on me” “I think you have a great deal of potential Damien, I really do. But your arrogance makes you write cheques your ass can’t cash” He knew he had a long way to go, that he had made mistakes and bad calls in the past. But he has also made great ones too. Where would he be six months from now-even a year? Only one thing was for certain, this lovable asshole wasn’t going anywhere.

Bad Dreams Damien had been reeling in from the trauma caused by a disaster that was out of his control, a prison trip and a nasty injury. He was beaten down and looking for a distraction when a call came over the radio from Chase “Damien, you want your chance to show you can lead? Get your bike and your gun to bayview in 5 minutes, don't wear colors” and with that he switched into gear. Damien arrived at a convoy in Bayview of what looked like a group 14 deep in biftas, cars and bikes when Chase called him over and said “We’re rolling labs deep tonight. You’re gonna be our main scout, I’m trusting you with this” Now Damien had scouted on some risky ops before so he knew the jist of what he was getting himself into, or so he thought. After a verbal argument with 67 breaks out in the bayview lot the convoy splits up and Damien gets call outs to scout North then Braddocks. North-clear so he moved to Braddocks and on his descent another altercation began when some people started accusing the group he was scouting for of following them around and suddenly there were 5 more of them pulling up. Damien goes to scramble but his bike gets damaged by one of the brawlers so he frantically jumps into the car of one of the guys he was rolling with, shortly down the highway he hears Chase over coms yell “We’re gonna have to fight them now we just shouted demands!” Now the fact there were only a handful of them and 14-15 of us it should have been an easy outnumber- if even HALF of them decided to show up. Damien and Chase found themselves fighting a 4v10 firefight against 67 outside a gas station, Damien being half naked with only a .50 is doing his best to get pot shots off but he gets the call to dip out because it’s getting too hot, this is where more problems arose. The guy he was riding with kept reversing when he was trying to get into his car. Trying to save chase instead of Damien despite Chase demanding the man take Damien instead, Damien ends up getting ripped to shreds by auto fire in this process as he watches the car drive off leaving a big cloud of dust. He looks up at the barrel of an AK-47 and braces for impact. Bang He wakes up in Paleto hospital, dazed and confused as to what had happened; he seemed to be suffering from amnesia. A doctor comes over to him and explains why he was there, turns out he had driven his bike off a cliff again doing his stupid stunts and hit his head on the way down. The whole ordeal turned out to be one big bad coma dream

Conciderunt The past month had been a wild ride for Damien, from joining an organization with 20+ strong members, a family who took him in while he slept in the back of his lowered Tampa trying to survive like a streetrat. Going from chopping anything not zeroed out and pushing small amounts of weed to running labs and doing something bigger than himself all while making fantastic money. “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb” is a saying meaning that the bond developed through soldiers in the trenches is stronger than the ties of family. But in the case of Salvation we are family in the trenches together, or at least it was that way. Salvation has taken a big blow in the past few weeks, members not being in the city, no solid foundation as Messiah wasn’t very often in the city. Damien sat in his Exemplar that fateful day, he had heard that Salvation was meeting with LNF so he was excited to hear some good news for once. He had a gut feeling that yelled out to him “Get out of the city today, take some time to look back and reflect on this week” So Damien did exactly that, he flew out and went off the grid for the time being. Leaving for one day couldn’t be that big of a deal right? Damien found himself sitting on a bike in the middle of the woods, The night sky covering what laid in front of him was a feeling too familiar. In complete silence he sat and thought to himself about the organization that had grown to become the closest feeling to family he has had in a long time, why were we being kicked down so hard? How can we expect to make a difference in this city if we can’t even keep ourselves afloat? Damien was conflicted, on one hand he felt nothing other than total loyalty to those around him but on the other his easy going chill surface was cracking at the seams, unsure of how many more blows he could take. He opened up the notes app on his phone and wrote this down: “I feel powerless. We’re going to fall apart and disband any second, it feels like I'm rolling a boulder up a hill each day just for it to roll back down even further. We don’t even have a fucking leader, where the fuck is Messiah in all of this? I’m not doing enough to help those around me, I need to be smarter and stronger. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and I want to achieve even more than I currently have. I will do what I can to constantly one up myself and prove myself to everyone else. I need to be a soldier” He sat there, for what felt like hours and watched the sun rise. Damien flew back into the city, when his reception kicked back in his phone exploded with questions from his friends. None of them made sense to him, he hopped on the radio and was greeted by T and Jackie saying “Griffith, we need to meet up. something happened while you were gone” Damien had become jaded by this phrase with the consistency of hearing it. Damien pulls up to the agreed meeting spot and is greeted by Charlie, sitting on the sand with an absent mind. “What, I’m gone for one day and the end of the fucking world happens?” “Damien, Messiah is dead” He sat there, on the sand. Even though a million thoughts were flying through his mind his whole body shut down. To him this marked the end, and after talking with what remained of his family he could see morale was at an all time low. He felt upset and angry he wasn’t there to support the people who had his back, it made him realize that from now on the continuation of Salvation lies in everyone's hands. And that he wanted to do something about it. This would mark the next chapter in Damien's story, one of healing, one of improving his shortcomings. One of Damien becoming the perfect soldier. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”-Sun Tzu

Shipment to: Los Santos Who the hell is Damien Hillside? “Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse” originates from a novel written by Willard Motley titled Knock on any door. This saying has been repeated and rearranged in the past 6 decades referring to a feeling of throwing caution to the wind, doing what you want or are presented with at the drop of a dime as tomorrow might not come and we will have lived a life of “what if I had just”. This is the Motto of Damien Hillside, the scrappy adrenaline junkie from Auckland, New Zealand. Damien grew up being scared of his own shadow, too afraid to jump off a slightly elevated platform. A wimp in his peers eyes and the polar opposite of what would become of him. When Damien was 14 his father tragically passed away, the one vivid memory he holds of this event is his father talking about how he wished he had done more with his life. How he spent too much time working, caring about what others thought about him and that if he had just lived a little more, then he could leave this world with contempt. The death of his father affected his transformative years, with the memory of his fathers words passing through his head each night he began to act out. Drinking and sneaking out of the house to start with, sleeping around and fighting anyone who talked negatively about him. This evolved into bigger vices, Damien became addicted to the rush of adrenaline he would get for doing something he shouldn’t. This led to him breaking into houses, hotwiring cars and the biggest phase of his life: Illegal street racing. Damien loved the thrill of racing cars with people he knew or local gang members through the streets that would crescendo into a full out police chase, he became so good at it that he was branded with the nickname “The Hawk” with the way he would glide across the asphalt with grace. It was through these events Damien met a man named Marcus “Shibuya” Mayven, Marcus picked out Damien from a crowd and pulled him aside and said “Listen, kid. I’ve seen what you can do and I’m not just talking about these little pissy cat and mouse games you’ve got going on with the pigs. So let me get right to the chase. How would you like to make some REAL money?” The idea was simple, Damien would break into private garages and houses and snag the cars of wealthy people. Mainly targeting spoiled rich kids, capitalists in charge of destroying the ozone and the occasional politician. Damien would then take these cars to Marcus and he would get his connections to remove the serial numbers on the engines, remove the license plates and ship them off to other parts of the world. London, Hong Kong, Los Santos etc. This was a win-win situation as Damien would be making money chasing the rush he so craved and make amazing money in doing so, and Marcus had a reliable footsoldier doing all the heavy lifting for him. As long as Damien didn’t bite off more than he could chew then he had a high success rate in doing this. Along the line Damien met a girl and started shacking up with her on the side, she would tell stories about her shitty ex and Damien would pretend to listen and nod in agreement with her statements. One day this girl turns and asks him “You know, he drives a really nice car. He never told me how he could afford it but when I looked up how much it's worth my jaw DROPPED. It would be a shame if it got stolen someday huh?” So Damien, figuring it would be a funny gesture of affection while also making a great commission cut, started planning out his plan of attack to pull this off. He had Marcus call in some contacts to make sure his tracks were covered, he went in, broke the window, red wire blue wire you get the idea. As Damien is driving to the warehouse where all of these vehicles are stored for processing, three bikes start tailing him and firing at the car. It was at this moment it clicked for him that he had just stolen the car of a high ranking gang member. His fight or flight instincts kick in, his years of experience in car chases starts paying off. After hours of adrenaline fueled carnage he has finally lost his assailants for the time being. Thinking quickly Damien spends the next few nights in the warehouse, thinking of a way to escape the country for a bit to protect himself and not bring danger to those who care about him. He decides to hide in the backseat of the car whilst its being lowered into a crate, his mind set on making it wherever the crate takes him. A white label is placed on the crate as it closes “SHIPMENT TO: Los Santos”