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Sam was fast. She’d been fast even before she died. High school track team. Only for a hot minute, it seemed, but it had stuck with her. And it served her well, now, as she raced through the jumbled and ripped up streets of Los Angeles, jumping over steaming craters in the concrete, dodging around debris that was so twisted and mangled that she couldn’t even begin to guess what any of it had originally been. Was that bent metal rod a piece of the international space station? A support beam from a skyscraper? A fender? No way to know, no time to care.
She raced along Vine, her wig tilted to a terrible angle, her clothing ripped and torn. Her shadow stretched out in front of her, illuminated by fires from every direction. No matter which way she turned, she couldn’t erase the image of Sterling Engelhart being sucked down into the earth. “He had a piece of me with him,” Elizabeth kept moaning to Aubrey, before she succumbed to torpor and the hunters opened fire. If Sam believed in miracles, she’d call it one that no one had been shot. She’d separated from Grace and Avery at the Ordo library, then immediately turned tail and started back for home, despite their protestations that she should stay with them.
( Even in this state... )
She raced along Vine, her wig tilted to a terrible angle, her clothing ripped and torn. Her shadow stretched out in front of her, illuminated by fires from every direction. No matter which way she turned, she couldn’t erase the image of Sterling Engelhart being sucked down into the earth. “He had a piece of me with him,” Elizabeth kept moaning to Aubrey, before she succumbed to torpor and the hunters opened fire. If Sam believed in miracles, she’d call it one that no one had been shot. She’d separated from Grace and Avery at the Ordo library, then immediately turned tail and started back for home, despite their protestations that she should stay with them.
( Even in this state... )
I'll be watching you...
Mar. 24th, 2015 09:53 amSometimes, Sam wondered if she had undiagnosed ADHD. She had no patience for all the talk talk talk. The only thing that convinced her that there wasn't anything wrong with her was the dull understanding that there was something wrong with pretty much every Kindred. It wasn't her. It was them. Case in point, standing around the Kindred Shopping District, listening to Jericho wank about political structure and praxis and blah, blah, blah. Sam had tuned him out about five minutes ago, to the point where he pretty much just sounded like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Avery and Grace and the others were listening. They'd know the right way to react to things. Sam was more interested in examining the rubble, anyway.
Some of the shops had survived the Rain better than others. Crazy Ivan's was basically a giant hole in the ground, but a few still had standing walls and shelves with items left. Items not important enough to salvage. Sam was just starting to pick her way over to the smoothie shop where she used to meet up with Tommy when she felt an odd pressure on her pocket. Instinct kicked in and she reached for her revolver, ready to make her would-be pickpocket piss his or her pants. At the same time, though, she reached for her pocket and found no hand to grab.
( Nothing was missing... )
Some of the shops had survived the Rain better than others. Crazy Ivan's was basically a giant hole in the ground, but a few still had standing walls and shelves with items left. Items not important enough to salvage. Sam was just starting to pick her way over to the smoothie shop where she used to meet up with Tommy when she felt an odd pressure on her pocket. Instinct kicked in and she reached for her revolver, ready to make her would-be pickpocket piss his or her pants. At the same time, though, she reached for her pocket and found no hand to grab.
( Nothing was missing... )
I got all my sisters with me...
Jan. 9th, 2015 08:02 pmThank fuck that was over. Going to the Ventrue clan meeting—which could just as easily have been called the Old White Guys in Suits Convention—had been a huge mistake. The ones that didn’t look at Sam with open disgust had stared at her like some kind of carnival sideshow freak. Was it justified? Maybe. Was it polite? No. Did it make it abundantly clear that she didn’t belong? Hell yes. She shouldn’t have gone at all. It was only that Daniel Jericho, who as a Ventrue and a Carthian had taken it upon himself to show her the ropes, insisted. How could she say no? Karen stressed to her the importance of making friends. So she’d tried to make friends.
And by and large, she’d failed.
After the meeting was adjourned (did anyone actually still use that word?) there was the expected lingering. The other members of her clan chit-chatted like old friends. Some of them, she suspected, had probably known each other for hundreds of years. If not more. And that was a delightful, fresh reminder of how very, very out-of-place she was. There were no other…what was the word Jericho had used? Neonates. She was probably the only person there still within the span of her mortal life.
( As she lingered near the back of the room... )
And by and large, she’d failed.
After the meeting was adjourned (did anyone actually still use that word?) there was the expected lingering. The other members of her clan chit-chatted like old friends. Some of them, she suspected, had probably known each other for hundreds of years. If not more. And that was a delightful, fresh reminder of how very, very out-of-place she was. There were no other…what was the word Jericho had used? Neonates. She was probably the only person there still within the span of her mortal life.
( As she lingered near the back of the room... )
It's the final countdown...
Jul. 18th, 2014 01:23 pmThere were nights when Sam's life felt like life and there were nights when it felt like a movie. And not just any movie, but a really, really shitty movie. Way worse than a B-movie. Even Bruce Campbell wouldn't touch that shit. The sort of movie where you saw the puppet's strings, the zippers on the backs of the rubber suits. Things were just falling apart, like the facade of reality had been splashed with turpentine.
Obviously, it was going to be one of those nights.
They had a plan. It wasn't a good one, to Sam's mind. The idea of Avery volunteering himself as bait left a bad taste in her mouth, but she supposed, if she was trying to be objective, he was their best bet. He hadn't just mastered the Coil of Rhea. He'd friggin' invented. Well. No. That wasn't the right word, exactly. More like...he'd discovered it?
( In the way that Columbus had 'discovered' America... )
Obviously, it was going to be one of those nights.
They had a plan. It wasn't a good one, to Sam's mind. The idea of Avery volunteering himself as bait left a bad taste in her mouth, but she supposed, if she was trying to be objective, he was their best bet. He hadn't just mastered the Coil of Rhea. He'd friggin' invented. Well. No. That wasn't the right word, exactly. More like...he'd discovered it?
( In the way that Columbus had 'discovered' America... )
