Name: Diego Ramirez
Clan and Covenant: Gangrel Acolyte
Connection: The Curtain, a prop warehouse where all manner of costumes and gadgets for the aspiring low-budget film director, stage magician, stunt performer, or theatre manager might find what they need, or close enough for practical purposes. The proprietor, a heavyset man with a cigar fascination, takes in goods without asking too many questions (not that "stolen theatrical props" is exactly a booming industry) including items linked to tragedies and accidents - he buys cheap, refurbishes, and sells them again for slightly cheaper.

There's always been ill-omened rumors about some of that stuff. Since the Embrace, Diego's confirmed a few: sometimes items that are more than they seem do come through, and the proprietor seems to have an eye for it. There's a second market of sorts, its nature and its membership shrouded in mystery - the rumors he's heard as a vampire don't question its existence, but rather speculate on how one might gain access to the exclusive ranks of those midnight customers.

Writing Sample:

Diego used to be a magician - not the kind that bends the forces of reality to their will, but the kind who sweats all night in an overdesigned suit trying to figure out better ways to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Exotic animals, in his case, which helped make up for the part where he wasn't terribly good. In fact the thing he was best at wasn't magic at all, it was bar brawls after the shows with pissed-off dudes under the usually-correct impression he'd been using some cheap sleight-of-hand to flirt with the girlfriend or boyfriend. That and being drunk. He used to be sober and a better magician and almost a decent person, but, well, showbiz means taking risks - especially in Vegas. All the competition. Long story short, he crippled an assistant, and he'd been thinking about proposing before that, so. You know. Nowhere to go but down.

Until the night one of those stupid, self-destructive fights saw him take a bad hit - cracked his head off the side of the bar. He should have blacked out. Maybe not woken up again.

Instead, he saw...something. A gray garden. A pool of red slime. The sound of flutes. A feeling like he was suffocating but in every organ at the same time, especially his brain. And when it ended? The bar was dark. He was the only one there. He left and hasn't been back.

Just a flash, but it changed everything. He couldn't drink anymore, couldn't relax, or he'd start to see that place again. And sometimes - sometimes he saw it anyway. When he was on stage, especially. Sometimes it helped. He found he could do things - take a step, make a move - in those flashes. His tricks could be good, that way. Except it messed with the animals. They got weird. Then he had to stop using assistants altogether, because they got weird. That included his handlers, and it meant an interruption in shows while he got permits and figured out how to care and house what he didn't give up on entirely. During the interruption it got worse. He couldn't sleep. He started waking up in places he hadn't gone to sleep in.

Then the Dragon found him - and everything changed again.