Random Encounters

[thebrownacid]

[This is a casual rp starter for scenes with Jen Daring, the world's most harmless Malkavian Antitribu. It serves as a warmup spot for character ideas for the After Gehenna game.]

San Francisco was a fishing village now. Bay water lapped the bases of the surviving skyscrapers, so clear now you could see down to the shattered street. Some brave divers went for artifacts down there: jewelry, surviving tools, random items to decorate their chambers with and claim bragging rights just for surviving. An old hubcap could cost you your life now that the Farrallones and the Bay were wed in one stretch of water over the drowned city. Sharks--the main risk in the area and also the main livelihood. They might get a fisherman now and again, but most nights in the high village with its precarious catwalks, it was they who became dinner.

When the sun went down the fishing crews lowered ropes down the side of the buildings and hauled up the boats along with their catch. The hard, ugly end-of-the-day work was necessary, for one breed of shark hunted at night and could take out even the few old yachts they had left.

The grunts and creaks of the ropes and thunk and scrape of the rising boats were the first thing Jen heard when she woke that night. She opened the closet she was curled up in and spilled out, yawning hugely. The outer wall of the hotel room she was squatting in had shattered outward, and a huge, battle-scarred gray cat crouched among the bricks, messily dining on a pigeon the size of a football. He looked up at her with his one good eye and meowed conversationally.

Within half an hour they had both eaten, and Jen was sitting quietly on the edge of the cracked rooftop plaza of the hotel. Other villagers, human and otherwise, milled on the rooftop by torchlight, enjoying a barbecue out in the cool night air. The cat sat next to her, keeping watch. Jen was a little unfocused, distracted by the blobs of golden and royal blue light dancing through the air. She knew something was going to happen soon and she should be here for it, but not what.

Comments

[thebrownacid]

The guy with the platter full of fresh bread rolls lets out a squeak and drops them with a clatter. His blood is clean and it takes an unusually small amount to satisfy.

As Eliot is feeding, a big, shaggy cat with one eye walks up calmly, sits at his feet and stares up at him expectantly. "Mow."

[minitreiver]

He lets the guy go as soon as his hunger is soothed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Sorry," he mutters, trying to fade back into the shadows.

He kneels next to the cat, offering his hand for it to smell. "Hey there, little guy." If it lets him, he'll scratch its head.

[thebrownacid]

The guy stumbles forward, mumbling and rubbing his neck. Then he stops short, and blinks, confused. He shakes his head once, and looks around. "Too much goddamn beer," he mutters, inexplicably, and then wanders out of the gap between building towers.

The cat sniffs him and then submits calmly to the scritch, tail wrapped around his legs.

"Oh, that guy will be fine, he's healthy as a horse," says a chirpy voice from up on the mangled and formerly empty fire escape.

[minitreiver]

He springs to his feet, backing away from the cat. If she know what he is and where he's from, she'll probably want to kill him, too.

"Who are you?"

[thebrownacid]

She smiles at his consternation while the cat happily retrieves a roll and starts gnawing on it. "I'm Jen! You must be new." New to the city, new in general, she didn't specify.

"Barney has funny blood. You don't need that much and he heals up faster. I think he's getting used to being nommed on. Maybe next time you should leave him something in trade or something." She talks on just as calmly as if she was sharing a recipe, then pauses and slowly tilts her head.

"...you ok?"

[minitreiver]

"I'm fine..." He watches her warily. He's not sure why she seems so okay with what she clearly saw him do. "What do you want?";

[thebrownacid]

She hops down a ways away and smooths her ridiculously ruffly miniskirt, which is tiedyed to match her hair. "I just saw another vampire and got curious. You don't have to be scared. Growly's more dangerous than me, and he thinks you're okay."

[minitreiver]

He doesn't relax at all, just takes another step back. At least he'll have a little head start if he has to run. "So you're all..." He makes a gesture trying to imitate fangs. "Don't make ya not dangerous. Makes ya more dangerous."

[thebrownacid]

"Me? Oh that's silly. I'm a total pacifist and you could probably bench press m--"

She stops dead, and blinks at him, and her expression grows crestfallen.

"You've never met any of us who didn't hurt you, have you?"

[minitreiver]

He jerks like she slapped hit. "Ya talk like ya don't kill each other whenever shit goes wrong!"

He manages to keep his voice low. It's bad enough one vampire knows he's here. He doesn't want to attract anymore.

[thebrownacid]

The cat drops his roll and comes over, meowing and pawing at the kid's knee. Hey. Dude. Chill. It's ok. "Mow?"

Jen blinks sadly and looks down. "You must have run into some of the bad ones. There were a lot like that. Specially before the war ended. Not going to lie to you about that. But around here nobody's gonna go after you unless you cause lots of problems. Got no reason to." She makes sure not to move from where she is.

"What...happened that makes you think that way?"

[minitreiver]

The kid reaches down to pet the cat. He shouldn't let it distract him. Not if he doesn't want to get killed.

"I didn't 'run into' them." He swallows, trying to calm himself. "They came after us."

[thebrownacid]

She blinks several times and then slides down the wall, sitting with a thump.

"The bad ones. Who...?" That's prying. But still. "Did they hurt you? Are you okay?"

The cat's solid muscle under the shaggy fur, and leans into being petted. He's not that affectionate, but Mom's worried about this one, and kitty purrs are magic.

"I um...it's really not always like that...I just sorta woke up with fangs at Woodstock one night...."

[minitreiver]

"I'm fine," he insists, bristling slightly. And it's true, physically.

He frowns, not following what she was talking about right away. "No, I didn't mean... Not when I... I meant my..." He pauses, trying to remember what his sire had called it. "My chantry."

[thebrownacid]

She stops short. "Chan...try?" She knows what a Chantry is. It's where her friends the Cultists of Ecstasy are from. Oh how she misses them. But not a one had wanted her Embrace because....

...because the Embrace kills the piece of a Mage's soul that makes magic, and it hurts them more than anything. Blood tears well up in her eyes and she starts sobbing.

"Oh no...oh no! That's s-so bad! I'm so sorry that's so terrible!"

[minitreiver]

He shrugs awkwardly. He's not sure what to think of this. He hadn't really liked anyone at the chantry. Just his sire and now he's not even sure how much of that was real.

"They were dicks." As hard as it is to admit, even now, he knows it's true. He remembers how they looked at him, like they were waiting for him to fail. Even his sire. Especially his sire.

[thebrownacid]

Jen's chin lifts and she pulls out a goddamned black-tiedyed hankie to wipe her face with. "Of course they were dicks. They did a really bad thing. Nobody should ever ever be taken against their will but so many are. It's bad." Sniffle.

Growltiger butts his head against the newcomer's hand, then mrrs softly and bounces off to see to his weepy mistress. Sorry dude. Duty calls.

"I can't live with vampires like that. If my Pack didn't put up with me I dunno w-what I'd do. I promise, they...they're...well, I can't call them all good people but they're better than that."

[minitreiver]

"What?" He shakes his head. "No, not... I meant my chantry. They were dicks." But he looks down at his feet when he says it. It feels wrong to say it.

[thebrownacid]

She still doesn't get it, but she seems to. "...oh. That...that sucks even worse." She peers at him, wiping her face again.

"Did they leave you all alone then? That happened after my sire died. Which pretty much happened right after he made me. Oops."

[minitreiver]

He nods then. He still doesn't understand why she seems so troubled about the chantry. "They didn't see me." He's pretty sure it's the only reason they hadn't killed him, too. "Some of 'em didn't look..." He shudders. "Not all of them. They didn't look right."

[thebrownacid]

"No, I don't suppose they would. Some clans don't look human. Some others make them look less human as they go along. You're...really new, aren't you? Did anyone tell you what's been going on? Did anyone even tell you, you know, how to survive the way you are now?"

She looks at him worriedly, then swallows and starts gathering up the piles of rolls onto the platter. "It's different now. We decide for ourselves how we live. We don't have to be monsters any more."

[minitreiver]

"Clans?" He frowns, trying to remember if anyone at the chantry had even used the term. "I don't... Stop." He stares at her, completely lost now. Please, just... Stop. I don't know what you're talkin' 'bout."

[thebrownacid]

"Um...oh...um...." she blinks several times, then pouts as she realizes nope, he really doesn't know anything. "...kay."

The cat meows up at her and se nods down at him. "Yeah, Growly, the guys who did this didn't tell him anything. Bastards."

She looks up at him. "I'll fix. What do you want to know?"

[minitreiver]

"They didn't get a chance." Why is he defending them? He hates them. But it's true. He'd barely had a week at the chantry. And most of that had been spent learning the Traditions. Which still don't make a whole lot of sense to him.

[thebrownacid]

She pauses and looks up. "...um. Oh.

"Okay well somebody hasta teach you stuff, because otherwise you'll die. And when we die we tend to take people with us which is extra bad.

"Clans are different families of vampires. We're all real different, with different powers and stuff."