Downtown Primeval

[Kaiennenhawi]

Concrete cracked as she hammered it with her fists, forcing her fingers into the crevices and tearing her way from beneath the earth, stone falling from her grasp as she pulled herself up to the surface. Dirt fell from her hair and clothing, and she brushed it from her tunic, combing her fingers through her hair. Dark eyes carefully scanned her surroundings, heightened senses picking up on nothing more than strange sounds and smells she didn't recognize. Looking around more, she didn't recognize her surroundings either. Of course, it had been over a century, but more had changed than she could comprehend.

Slow, careful steps carried her forward, her senses primed for any danger. What she saw was stranger than anything she could have anticipated, and she realized then what very little remained of familiarity. Even the ground beneath her feet didn't feel the same, never mind the chill of the concrete.

Her gaze traveled her surroundings, lingering on all she didn't recognize. There were dozens of machines neatly arranged where she found herself, and she didn't bother getting closer to discern anything else. Understanding would come in time, but instinct superceded, and it had been far too long since she last fed. After meandering until she found the ramp that led aboveground, she stepped out into the cool night air - and for the first time, undeniably, into an entirely new world.

Again she forced herself to ignore the newness of it all, focusing in on the one thing that hadn't changed: prey. There were far more secluded places to hide away while drinking from someone, and that made her hunt all the shorter. Stepping out from the shadow of the parking garage, she began walking down the sidewalk to...somewhere. She doubted very much there were any others of her clan so far west, or that there were many of them besides. Their numbers had always been plentiful, but as she'd witnessed before going into torpor, the years were not kind to her people - and that didn't seem to have changed.

All of that left her with not much of anything in terms of resources or connections, but one as old as her didn't survive so long without reason. As always, she would find her way. No doubt it would take far longer to orient herself in this new world, but that didn't mean much. She was here now, and little else could change that. Perhaps later she would return to the northeast and familiar territory, but she needed connections first.

So she kept walking.

 

[Elias Warren Baker]

His ghouls had a way of overstating the truth in a way that nagged at his baser instincts to rip them to pieces.

Some things though, well, they were so outlandish and unexpected that even a hyperactive kine like a ghoul couldn't have been expected to imagine it. In fact, it sounded less like hysteria and more like some crazed Malkavian dream sputtered out between crazed drawings in old journal.

Percy wasn't here though and the hole in the center of the parking garage was enough proof to know something...unusual had just occurred.

"She broke right through the ground, right there - like some goddamn evil turnip" Franklin pointed at the hole, his voice still strained from what must have been quite the shock.

"Bitch looked about ready to go open up a casino - furred up with beads and bones and shit. Ever see that movie Night at the Museum? Bitch looked like a wax statue of p-

Elias held up a finger, his eyes tracing from the hole in the floor to the nearby car exit. "I get the picture, Frank, I think you best be taking the car home. Might get ugly."

"You sure boss? I mean-

"Yes, Frank. Now be a sport and grab my iron out the glove box, would you?" Frank threw up his hands and turned to the car, opening the door and grabbing a large, ornately decorated magnum from the glove box. He handed it to Elias, who holstered it, said goodnight and walked out into the brisk air.

It hadn't taken long to find her - she stood out like...well like an injun in the county. "Looking right lost there, girl" he called out, the smell of concrete, rot and age overcoming him.

He stopped almost a dozen feet away and spoke as if she was right beside him...he knew she'd here.

"Cold night for a stroll."

 

[Kaiennenhawi]

Even without heightened senses, it was difficult to miss the only other footsteps on an otherwise empty stretch of road. With them, she heard him approach moments before he spoke, stopping when he finally did and turning to face him. What greeted her was something that reminded her briefly of the stories that had been spun about settlers as they trampled more and more of her people's land: a taller, well-dressed man in a black suit with a voice like poison. Yes, she knew his kind well.

That he was like her wasn't a surprise - it was the other disease the Europeans had brought with them. It didn't seem that he'd been there at the beginning though, age had a way of changing even their kind and he didn't seem quite that old. He had an air about him, a cold casualness she was familiar with. Younger, yes, but not to be underestimated. One didn't survive as long as she had by devaluing a foe just because of their years lived.

"Lost?" Her voice was quiet, conversational, and strangely accented. There was no move on her part to move any closer, and she seemed content to keep him a distance away while they spoke. "No. Just unfamiliar." It was as if she was trying out the words as she spoke, remembering a language foreign to her, never mind that she hadn't spoken it in nearly two centuries. Speaking again was an exercise all its own, her long-dead vocal chords being forced to relearn how to function after so long spent dormant.

Her fangs slipped from her gums in the silence that followed, and she ran her tongue across their familiar sharpness before willing them away - forcing the hunger that gnawed at her insides to subside for just a while longer, though the growling in the back of her mind told her she didn't have long. There was to be no debate on the subject, she needed to hunt and to do so immediately, never mind the vulnerable position it would leave her in with her new...well. She didn't know what he was yet.

She studied her surroundings closely for the second time since awakening, searching for potential threats and anything to sate her hunger, even momentarily. But for all the infrastructure there was a lack of any life to it, and she wondered briefly what had been the point of it all if it only made their life more difficult. She'd known the Camarilla to run things before, and couldn't imagine that having changed.

Looking him in the eyes, she swallowed, more out of reflex than anything. "I need to hunt."

 

[Elias Warren Baker]

"Is that so...mighty brave thing to be feeding in a place that ain't yours. I haven't seen the prince, but I reckon he wouldn't kindly take to poachers."

It'd been years since he'd heard an accent like hers in person. During the war he'd fought alongside some injuns who had accents similar to her own...but he'd never met a feather head who'd been turned. Honestly, he'd never take to turning one of the redskins himself - they had a way of refusing to bend with the times.

And time had proven that point in his own mind. He wondered how long this girl been buried under that cement. It gave a whole new meaning to the concept of a curses over Indian burial mounds. Elias kept on looking at the kindred for some time, his eyes searching for signs of age and tribe.

"Ain't nobody dressing like you anymore, little lady. You must have been asleep a long time now."

 

[Kaiennenhawi]

"That would make us both poachers, then." There were hidden implications to her words if he looked a bit deeper, not that she attempted to keep them any secret. This land was no more his than it was hers - but at least she had some claim by merit of having existed on the continent before his people first set foot on it, or even began to dream of doing so.

Aside from that, being that the so-called 'Prince' was yet unseen meant that his claim to the territory was disputed at best. Kaiennenhawi had never been terribly familiar with how the settler Kindred maintained themselves, but order was something they favored, and an unseen Prince introduced speculation and supposed weakness they couldn't abide or afford. Her biggest danger remained the man before her, not some unseen specter that was just as likely nonexistent.

By the way he was looking at her and how long he'd been staring she could tell he was trying to place just where she fit into the history he was familiar with. There were no answers she could provide that would satisfy his curiosity, not that she would be willing to provide had she had any in the first place. The unknown was the best and most powerful weapon their kind had, and she had that advantage just as much as he did. She stared him down for as long as he did the same, holding his gaze with an edge that betrayed her true age.

A long time asleep, he'd said. "Yes." A confirmation of what he already knew, but nothing more. There had been no way for her to know what year it was when she went into torpor, and she had no frame of reference for just how long she'd spent beneath the earth. It could have been as little as one century, but with what little she'd seen of the world it was apparent it had been longer. It was information she didn't expect him to be forthcoming in sharing, and she would be reluctant of anything he had to tell her about where she found herself. He had every reason in the world to lie, and none at all to be truthful.

A sharp clawing at the back of her skull jarred her from their conversation, and there was a pained look to her face. It was impossible to push aside her base needs any longer, and she wasn't content to let him keep her from satisfying her hunger. "I'm going." Not willing to turn back around and present her back so readily, she began walking in the direction she was now facing, past him and down the street opposite to where she'd been going previously. There was a quiet undertone to her words: he could follow or he could leave, but she wouldn't be waiting on the likes of him.

 

[Elias Warren Baker]

"Poaching is such a strong word, I prefer to think of it in partaking in what is being freely offered. A lack of retribution is merely an open arms invitation after all" Elias imagined that this girl knew something about that, judging by her apparent age...funny how things changed when you were a kindred. She appeared so much younger, but her blood smelled of power and poison. Elias let the rest of the conversation pass with his own silence, but then he felt her blood rouse and her eyes grew that much darker.

It seemed his knew conversation partner was feeling the urge. Old Dixie simply smiled and watched as she passed him, her focus set on...nowhere really. Where could it be focused? If she was as old as he suspected then she likely had no idea where, when or how to hunt in these modern nights. That was a useful advantage to have over someone so much older.

Yes she could likely send him to the final death...unless she needed his assistance. "Well now, that's all good and swell. Girls gotta eat after all...but might be helpful to have a guiding hand. Don't want the kine to find you because of some stupid mistake. 'Fraid they are much more wise to us in these modern nights...they even have hunters."

Elias didn't make to follow her, not yet anyway. He simply called from behind, watching as she walked away.

 

[Kaiennenhawi]

Those final words brought her forward progress to a halt, and she turned back around to face him. Her expression was almost perfectly impassive, save for the bite behind her eyes. As much as she wanted to be rid of him, she knew he spoke sense. This place was far different to the sparsely populated cities and towns she had seen from the settlers in her time, and she knew even less of their ways in these nights than she had back then. She needed a guide for this new world, and unfortunately he was her best present option.

Even with every instinct telling her to abandon her present company, she didn't move. Thoughts and possibilities ran through her head, none particularly favorable. He was far more likely to bring an end to her existence as opposed to help, and Kaiennenhawi knew this with certainty, because if their positions were reversed she would have done the same. Her ignorance tempered the danger one of her age posed, a vulnerability she was uncomfortably aware of.

The keening thirst refused any time to decide, and she wasn't willing to take the risk. "You have no reason to help. It would make more sense for you to kill me." Her voice was that same conversational tone, words coming more easily now as she learned again how to exist. What she said was spoken as fact, and she paused to gauge his reaction, expecting none. Finally, "Why?" Still again, she expected no real answer. The way he looked at her told her everything she needed to know, and if she wasn't so weak after centuries beneath the earth perhaps she would have done more about it.

For now, they both bided their time.