Nickolas "Sweetie Pepper" White is a Caitiff residing in the Chicago area.
Biography[]
| “ | Compromise is the word used to disguise the fact one has given up. It’s one of the White Man’s best poisons. | ” |
Mortal Days[]
Nickolas White always seemed to draw the short straw when it came to opportunities. His parents had moved into the Jane Adams Homes on the near West Side of the city as soon as they began to start allowing blacks into those projects. He hated that place, and it's only saving grace was its proximity to Maxwell Street. If his dad had a good work week, and enough money was saved up, Nickolas’ parents would walk him to the market. He’d see street vendors, jazz and blues musicians playing in the alleys and parking lots, and his dad would buy him an Italian beef sandwich. Nickolas always wanted lots of sweet peppers on his sandwich, earning him the nickname “Sweetie Pepper.”
By the time Nickolas started going to school, the area was already a hotbed of racial gangs, each group protecting their own neighborhood from interlopers. Nickolas’ mother and father urged him to stay clear of the fighting, but he quickly became embroiled in street politics. Nickolas insisted he had to continue because he was fighting for his people. The truth of it though was he just loved the thrill of the fight. Having a family of brothers at his side who would come fight with him at a moment’s notice meant he was somebody on the streets. One day, Nickolas and two of his friends were victims of a drive-by shooting as they were coming out of a liquor store. Nickolas survived, the others did not.
While he proclaimed he would get revenge for his friends, in truth, he cared more about the insult to his reputation. He tied his sense of reputation to his support of the cause of blackness. He saw everything in terms of white vs. black and felt any attack was an attack on blackness itself. He just wanted to hurt the people who made him look bad. When he found the ringleader of the shooters, Amadeo Carluccio, he beat and strangled Amadeo and his girlfriend.
Nickolas garnered the attention of every cop and mobster and became a legend in his own streets. Shoot out after shoot out, Nickolas stayed one step ahead. Then, the Italians killed his parents. After that, Sweetie Pepper led a one-man war against them (and any non blacks who managed to get in his way). As he fought, he made more enemies. The cops were coming down harder on black gangs and the Mafia had gotten involved. At this point he had drawn the attention of local Kindred influences in the area. Most of them wanted Sweetie Pepper dealt with as he was drawing far too much attention to a good, politically ignored, hunting ground. Sweetie Pepper was eventually drawn into an ambush where he lost the fight and would have died. As his vision faded and he was bleeding out, the vampire hitman laughed and said it would be a shame for him to go out in this fashion, as he descended with fangs exposed.
Kindred Nights[]
The Embrace turned Sweetie Pepper’s world upside down. The vampire who Embraced him took great pleasure in showing him how little his ideas of reputation and race wars mattered. He showed him how much of the world, he thought he was protecting benefitted powerful vampires who were mostly white. He showed him how so many of his targets had been selected by Ventrue and the Camarilla. Then his sire removed all trace of his face and name from Pepper’s memory. Sweetie Pepper reconnected under a different alias with the various Black Nationalist movements but grew enraged when he saw them fighting against each other, killing more blacks than anyone else. He realized it was all ridiculous games being played by monsters and now he was one of them. There were systems on top of systems to keep those on top on top, and those on the bottom on the bottom.
That knowledge pushed him over the edge and he started killing again. At first, he told himself he’d do better, only killing bad people. He tried informing people about the truth and helping to instigate race riots. He started feeding off drug dealers, dope fiends, and crooked cops. It didn’t matter that they were someone’s child, or husband, or wife. He liked the rush of the kill too much and started killing indiscriminately. Again, he brought attention to the impoverished feeding grounds of the city. Lodin, in an uproar, demanded his head. Many vampires came out to claim it. This caused him to switch his killing to the Kindred. He hated Chicago. He hated what he was, what had been done to him, and what they could do.
Where once he had been a legend of the impoverished black communities, he was now becoming a legend of anarchy among Kindred. Some Anarchs secretly love the trouble he stirs up in the city, but they are not immune to his murderous pursuits. Juggler recently secreted him out of the city only to find his haven burned down as a receipt. Sweetie Pepper didn’t want to leave. He may despise Chicago, but he’s not finished with the city.
Appearence[]
Nickolas is a gangly man. His arms seem just a little too long for his body. His face is long and narrow, and he appears to be in his late 20s but bears the wear and scars of a hard life of fighting in the streets. White is old school and simple in terms of clothes. He most often wears pleated slacks, well-polished leather shoes, V-neck T-shirts, and a gold chain. He is clean-shaven with his hair in a close-cropped afro. He always smells of cigarettes and whiskey and is prone to playing with a bone toothpick between his teeth.
Character Sheet[]
References[]
- VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition, p. 110-112
