If you, a normal, every day person, were to walk upon these streets of Seattle Washington-- you'd notice something just not quite right. More than that, something wrong with the way the city works. The way the world works. You're not in your normal world anymore. You're living in the World of Darkness, things are a little bit darker, a little more wrong.
Maybe you are in Boston. The city has gone crazy this year, folks bolting out of running vehicles, the constant thunder storms are unseasonable and make your hair stand on end. The winds tell you that a war is in full force, your heart feels it too, but it looms in the back of your mind as you head to work. You can taste that the world is on the cusp of something grand. Maybe you will learn to understand these mysteries that tease at the corner of your psyche, maybe you won't.
Or, perhaps, you think back to those children you knew growing up in Bishopgate, Colorado. If you were lucky your parents chose to leave at the first sign of trouble. If you weren't lucky your ghost still sleep there, if you were extra unlucky your ghost was eaten by god knows what. There is no God in Bishopgate. Demons, yes. It was up to you and your friends to make that not the case--did you do that, in between the trips to the mall and Homecoming? Do your childhood failures direct your adulthood actions? Your deep desire to save someone is fueled by your childhood failures to do so. Does anyone benefit from your desire to do the right thing? What truly makes your suffering worth it.